


10 Things I Hate About You

by YouAndIForForever



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz, Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Genre: 10 Things I Hate About You AU, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/F, F/M, Galaxy Gals, Homophobic Language, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Self Harm, Step-Brothers, Swearing, and this is all pre Connor murphy project, boyf riends — Freeform, dissecting live frogs so thats gross, eventual pinkberry, if Connors personality seems kind of off i did that on purpose, itll make more sense towards the end, just gotta wait and see i guess, richjake, slow burn? kinda, stepbros, suicide (mention), the squip is not a thing in this au, treebros
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-21
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2018-12-18 08:56:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 28,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11870916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YouAndIForForever/pseuds/YouAndIForForever
Summary: This is a 10 Things I Hate About You au.Evan and Jeremy both get their fair share of boys, romance, lies, and schemes by the end of the year.





	1. First Day Back

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all!
> 
> If you haven't seen the movie 10 Things I Hate About You, I highly recommend watching it before reading this fic (it's available for streaming on Netflix if you haven't seen it). It's based on The Taming of the Shrew and it's really cute and funny! It's definitely my favorite rom-com and when I rewatched it a few months ago I thought it would make a really fun DEH/BMC au.  
> Enjoy!

Jeremy Heere was sitting in the guidance counselor’s office at his new high school. He had walked in several minutes ago but the counselor, Mr. Reyes, was busy tapping away at his computer.

“Come in! Come in!” Mr. Reyes had called in a strange, theatrical vibrato from his desk when Jeremy had knocked on his door.

“Sit down, please, Jeremy, I’ve been expecting you.” Mr. Reyes had said with an almost sinister looking smile.

“Uuuuuh…okay,” Jeremy had said, doing as he was told and took a seat on the chair in front of the desk.

10 minutes later and Mr. Reyes was still tapping away at his computer and Jeremy was glancing around, taking in the office, not really sure what else to do.

Mr. Reyes office was small and cluttered. It was decorated from floor to ceiling with posters of musical theater shows like Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, My Fair Lady, Cabaret, A Chorus Line, Hamilton, and many, many more. A microwave sat precariously on a stool in the corner, something inside it being heated. Jeremy hadn’t seen what it was when Mr. Reyes shoved it in a few minutes ago. The timer only had about 2:00 minutes on it now.

“Now, let’s see.” The guidance counselor said, finally closing his computer and opening up what Jeremy could only assume was his school file. He started skimming over it and making interested humming noises that made Jeremy nervous.

“My, my…changing schools in the middle of high school? I certainly hope nothing went wrong at your last school.” Mr. Reyes smirked at Jeremy and peered at him over the top of his glasses.

Jeremy glanced around the room. This was uncomfortable, to say the least.

He cleared his throat. “Oh no, actually my dad-”

“That’s enough.” Mr. Reyes said, putting his hand up to stop Jeremy, “I'm sure you won't find Middleborough any different than your old school.”

Jeremy raised his eyebrows and nodded.

It had all happened so fast. Jeremy’s dad had met someone when he was in the middle of his freshman year. Jeremy was just glad that his dad was able to get over his deadbeat mom and find someone new. She had left a few years ago and his dad hadn’t seemed okay for a long time after that.

His dad’s girlfriend was Heidi Hansen and she was really nice. A part-time nurse, part-time law student and she made his dad happy. She had long blonde hair, kind blue eyes, and Jeremy liked her smile and the way she spoke.

Heidi also had a kid, Evan. He was 1 year older than Jeremy but was nothing Jeremy had really expected in a big brother. Jeremy always pictured himself with a super cool older brother who played on the football team and was super smooth with the girls. He’d be tall with good hair and always have the best clothes and everyone would like him. And Jeremy would be just like him and his cool older brother would invite Jeremy to all the cool parties in town and everyone would be all “Dude, that’s your brother, he’s so cool. And you’re so cool too!”

When Jeremy first met Evan, after his dad insisted that things with Heidi were getting serious enough for their kids to meet, Evan was kind of the opposite of all of that. Evan didn’t play any sports or go to parties or had never dated anyone. He was shorter than Jeremy with okayish hair and nervous eyes. He wore the same weird combo of a blue polo and khakis every day and he stuttered and he spoke way too fast at times. He played with his hands and was hunched over a lot, and he was never able to stop moving. Always pulling at the bottom of his shirt or picking at his cast or wiping at his face. Evan had never dated a popular girl or date anyone…he didn’t even really have any friends. Jeremy was disappointed, to say the least.

But Evan was nice and Jeremy liked him enough.

Just before Jeremy’s summer break between sophomore and junior year, Heidi and Paul had bought a house together and the Hansen’s and the Heere’s moved in together. It was still pretty close to Jeremy’s old house and much bigger so he wasn’t complaining. In fact, Jeremy was pretty excited because the new house was within a different schools districts limits and Jeremy was going to get to transfer schools. He was extremely lucky because it just so happened that Jeremy’s best friend was going to be at his new school.

His name was Michael and he was the coolest dude Jeremy had ever known. They had become friends back in preschool. At the time, the town was a bit smaller with only one preschool nearby. 4-year-old Jeremy had randomly sat down next to 4-year-old Michael on the first day and talked about how fast they could run on the playground and what Gameboy games they liked. They made sure to sit next to each other every day after that and had been inseparable ever since.

…Until elementary school hit and they were each carted off to their respective schools. They had wound up in the same summer camps and Jeremy had begged his dad to let him join the Boy Scout troop that Michael was in when they were in 4th grade. When they were both old enough, they played video games online together and spent a majority of their free time texting once they both got cell phones in middle school.

Michael had freaked out when Jeremy had told him he’d be switching schools. They stayed up all night talking on the phone about what it was going to be like being in classes together and living closer to each other.

A new school with Michael sounded amazing, but a new school meant new everything. Jeremy dreaded thinking about how this school was going to be just like his last school; there were the popular kids and then there were the non-popular kids and then there was Jeremy. Jeremy wasn’t even considered a non-popular kid. He was sort of just invisible to everyone. He wanted to be noticed and popular and cool, but he really had no way of knowing how to do that.  
But at least he had Michael and Michael was his favorite person, so the next 2 years were going to be totally fine.

Jeremy was pulled from his thoughts when Mr. Reyes turned his head and stared out the window, a longing look in his eyes, murmuring, “Same little asswipe shit-for-brains everywhere,” under his breath.

Jeremy blinked rapidly, not knowing how else to respond to the off colored comment.

The microwave beeped, and it shook Mr. Reyes from his weird trance. He stood up and walked over to it.

“Well, I’ve got deviants to see and a hot pocket to eat. I have a student who’s going to meet you by the school entrance to show you around, so go find him. Good day Mr. Heere.” Jeremy didn’t move a muscle.

“Good day!” Mr. Reyes said and Jeremy jolted from his chair.

“Okay. Thanks.” Jeremy said, slightly dumbfounded at everything that had happened in the office.

He turned and saw someone standing in the doorway. A guy with long hair and dark clothes. He was intimidating, to say the least. Jeremy squeezed past him and headed towards the school entrance, trying to understand how that man was supposed to be a guidance counselor.

-

Connor watched a wiry kid leave the office before his eyes slid over to where Reyes was standing. He was eating a hot pocket and some of the filling was dripping down into his beard. Connor’s top lip curled up slightly in disgust.

“Connor Murphy. I see we're going to be making our visits a weekly ritual, just like when you were a sophomore.” Reyes gestured to the chair in front of his desk.

Connor didn’t respond to his invitation to talk or sit, just stared at him from the doorway arms crossed.

How was he already in trouble? He hadn’t even done anything yet, he had literally just shown up to the first day.

“Your mother called earlier, wanting me to just…check up on you, make sure everything was going well.”

“I’ve been back for about 20 minutes now so, yeah it’s been great,” Connor replied with a sarcastic smile.

It was obviously already a disaster. Kids parted like the red sea when they saw that everyone’s favorite freak had returned. Connor had just glued his eyes to the floor and let his hair fall around his face while whispers followed him everywhere.

“Well, this year, we’ll get it right, won’t we Mr. Murphy?”

“Can’t wait,” Connor muttered, leaving without a second glance toward Reyes.

-

Evan was extremely nervous to have a sibling. He had hung out with Jeremy a lot after their parents had started going steady but he was worried about spending a lot of time with another teen boy. What if Jeremy didn’t actually like him or what if he thought Evan was lame? What if he was just being nice while his dad was around but was actually really violent and would go berserk on him?

After meeting him, Evan knew Jeremy wasn’t like that at all, but Evan couldn’t help but feel that way at first. He had never had a brother or a stepbrother before and he didn’t really know what it was going to be like.

Jeremy was funny and nice and asked Evan to play video games with him all the time. Evan really wasn’t good – his hands trembled too much – but he liked spending time with his new little stepbrother. Plus it made his mom happy to see Evan interacting with someone around his own age.

When Evan had heard that their family was all going to be moving in together, he had only freaked out a little. He liked Mr. Heere and Jeremy but spending some time with them was totally different than living with them.

Moving in had gone better than expected. Heidi and Paul had picked a 2 story house within driving distance of the school and Jeremy and Evan each got their own bedrooms. (Evan’s bedroom was painted a soft blue color, while Jeremy had each wall a different color; red, dark blue, light blue, and green.)

They had all worked for several weeks at the end of August; painting, installing, and moving furniture into the house before they were finally able to move in themselves.

The boys had helped carry in each other’s stuff up to their rooms and unpack. Evan had handed thumbtacks to Jeremy when he was putting up his video game posters while Jeremy helped try to fit Evan’s extensive book collection on trees and plants into just one bookcase (it hadn’t worked, there was still a few piles sitting on the floor next to Evan’s bed).

That night they had ordered pizza and sat around their new IKEA dining room table, Heidi and Paul discussing what they should do for curtains and if they should get a mirror for the upstairs hallway.

-

Evan wasn’t looking forward to going back to school at all. It was his senior year and he hated being here. Most people just sort of pretended that Evan didn’t exist, which for the most part, he was happy about. He was so awkward and weird and shaky that it was probably better than people just looked right through him. But…he did kind of wish that he was less like that and maybe someone would see him…if only a little. But that hadn’t happened in the past 3 years, and it wasn’t going to start now.

Jeremy had seemed like a great first step. Evan could show him around the school and they’d sit together at lunch and work on homework in the library. But that all fell apart when Evan learned that Jeremy already had a friend at school. Evan didn’t want to get in the way of them so he resigned himself to keeping his distance so Michael wouldn’t have to deal with Jeremy’s weird older stepbrother.

Evan would just go to school with his head down and try not to draw any attention to himself and hopefully, this last year would go by quickly.

-

It was the morning of the first day of school. Mom called up to Evan, who was sitting on his bed, fiddling up the cast that was wrapped around his left arm and scrolling through his Facebook feed.

“Evan, the counselor wants to see Jeremy before school starts today, would you show him where to go?” Heidi asked.

“Y-Yeah, sure, sounds great,” Evan responded, his mind suddenly deciding to forget where the counselor’s office was in the school.

“Hey, champ, your mom and I were talking and we think should let the other kids sign your cast today at school,” Mr. Heere said from down the hall.

“Okay, Mr. Heere,” Evan laughed awkwardly, a sinking feeling in his gut when he thought about the rejections he was going to face if he tried that.

“Don’t forget about those letters, sweetie! You need to be writing those letter!” Evan’s mom reminded him.

“I know, I’m gonna finish one at school,” Evan replied.

Jeremy appeared at his door.

“You ready to go dude?” He asked

“Ye-Yeah let’s do it,” Evan said.

Evan and Jeremy agreed on walking since it was better than riding the bus or having one of their parents drop them off. Evan couldn’t drive yet. Or rather he could be, but driving sent Evan into a panic, so he tried to avoid it as much as possible. It was embarrassing, being the only senior at school who didn’t drive in.

Jeremy and Evan had talked for a bit while walking to school, but both of them were too nervous to really hold a coherent conversation.

Once they go to the biggest building on campus, Evan led him down a few hallways until they headed into an office that had a handful of smaller offices inside it.

Evan turned to him and gave an awkward half-smile, before sputtering out, “O-Okay, so, here’s the guidance counseling center. Mr. Reyes is in –uh yeah he’s in that room.”  
Evan pointed to a room that said 439, the door was wide open, “He’s really nice but kind of –kinda weird but everything should be all good. You can text me later if you want…or you don’t have to.”

“Okay, thanks, Evan.” Jeremy said, “See you later?”

“Yeah, see you later.” Evan nodded and waved, looking at the ground, before turning around and leaving the office.

Evan walked out into the hallway and kept his eyes locked on the ground until he saw a pair of brown boots stop in front of him. Evan looked up and saw Alana Beck, the overachieving Harvard bound student, standing in front of him.

“Hey! How was your summer?” She asked with a bright smile.

Evan looked behind him for a second, making sure she wasn’t talking to someone else.

“Mine was-” He started but Alana cut him off. Evan’s summer wasn’t that interesting so it was okay.

“Mine was productive. I did 3 internships and 90 hours of community service. I know, wow.”

“Wow, that’s really-” Evan tried again.

“Even though I was so busy I still made some great friends, or acquaintances, and even started dating someone.”

Evan pressed his lips together. Alana had started dating Zoe Murphy, Evan’s long time crush. Well, ex-crush. Ever since he had found out about Zoe and Alana, his feelings had fallen away and he accepted that Zoe would have never wanted him, even if Alana hadn’t swooped in.  
Evan tried to clear his head of the thoughts and suddenly remembered what Mr. Heere had said this morning.

“Do you maybe wanna – that’s um – I’m sorry I don’t know what you’re um if you have to – do you wanna just sign my cast?” Evan pulled a marker out of his pocket and stuck out his injured arm out in front of him.

“Oh my god,” Alana exclaimed, very concerned, “What happened to your arm?”

“Oh well, I broke it. I was climbing a tree –” Evan started to explain.

“Oh really?” Alana interrupted him again, “Zoe, my girlfriend, told me that she broke 3 of her fingers while playing lacrosse a few years ago.”

Evan stood there awkwardly, not really sure what to say. He already knew that, but he didn’t want to let Alana know then have her tell Zoe then Zoe think he was a freak. Evan if he didn’t like her like that anymore…he didn’t want her to think that.

“Happy first day!” Alana’s smile returned to her face and she walked away. Evan waved as she went but he was pretty sure she didn’t see him.

Evan blinked and Jared was in her place, poking his chest.

“Is it weird to be the first person in history to break their arm from jerking off too much or do you consider that an honor?” Jared asked.

Evan blushed and recoiled slightly from Jared’s touch.

“No, stop, no, I wasn’t-I wasn’t doing that.” Evan’s words stumbled awkwardly out.

“Paint me the picture, you’re in your bedroom, you got Zoe Murphy’s Instagram pulled up on your weird off brand cell phone...”

Evan shushed him, “That’s not what happened. Obviously, I was just well, I was-”

“That’s a great story Evan, but I actually gotta go. Some new kid needs me to hold his hand around campus and last time I skipped my detention work, Mrs. Mooney called my mom.” Jared rolled his eyes.

“Oh, must be Jeremy…how’d you have detention?” Evan asked

“You mean your new little brother your mom adopted cuz she needed a son that doesn’t jerk off to younger girls?” Jared asked with a toothy grin, ignoring Evan’s question.

“I don’t even like Zoe anymore” Evan blushed, “Besides she’s with Alana now and there’s no way I could compete with someone like her anyway…she did 90 hours of community service.”

Jared snorted and rolled his eyes.

“Great well, while you have a meltdown, I’m gotta piss like a racehorse.” Jared started to walk away.

“Do-Do you wanna sign my cast?” Evan asked, pulling the marker back out of his pocket.

“Why are you asking me?” Jared said, his face looked almost disgusted.

“Well, I just thought cuz we’re friends.” Evan’s voice broke a little on the last two words.

“We’re family friends. That’s a whole different thing and you know it.” Jared explained to him for about the millionth time.

Evan hated when Jared said that. If he didn’t, at least Evan could pretend they were actually friends. Jared said something else but Evan didn’t even really catch it, mind still harping on “family friends”. He slipped the marker back into his pocket, resigned to the fact that no one was going to sign his cast and he’d have to explain it to his mom and Mr. Heere.

“Cool. I’m gonna go now.” Jared said and Evan gave a small wave as he watched him leave.

-

Jeremy finally made his way to the main entrance of the school. It was hard getting through the crowded hallways. Jeremy looked around for a second, realizing he had no idea what this person looked like that he was supposed to meet. Maybe he should go back up and ask Mr. Reyes who he was looking for?

Jeremy shuddered at the thought and shook his head. He’d just wait over by the wall with the trophy cases and hope that the person would find him. Maybe it’d be a cute girl and she’d show him around and maybe she’d think he was cute and ask him to sit with her at lunch or maybe –

He felt a tap on his shoulder and he jumped.

Jeremy spun around to find a guy wearing a purple button up with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt on underneath. He wore large-framed glasses, blue headphone around his neck, and a smug smile.

He stuck out his hand and Jeremy almost jumped at the quick movement.

“Jared Kleinman. Hi. I’m supposed to show you around.”

Jeremy shook his hand and nodded. “I’m Jeremy.”

“Great. Well, Jeremy here’s the breakdown.” Jared rubbed his hands together and led Jeremy down the hall.

“To the left, we have the overachievers. Get a 4.0 and join the chess club and you can be a loser just like them.” Jared laughed, gesturing towards a group of kids, waiting anxiously in front of the library, the librarian looking like he was taking forever to unlock the door. They were all carrying textbooks, handfuls of flashcards, and oversized Starbucks coffee cups.

“Over here we have the theater kids.” Jared pointed at a group of people animatedly talking over each other.

“Who uses On My Own as an audition song anymore? Like God, can you be any more basic?!” A boy from the group asked loudly and the group roared with laughter.

“One-way ticket to getting called gay.” Jared snorted and led him further down the hallway.

“Let’s see, who else do we have?” Jared said glancing around before leading them out a side door that led to an open courtyard of sorts.

Jared led him over to a table full of kids on laptops, “This is the hyperintelligent, insanely cool computer and graphics club.”

The group seemed to glare at Jared, but he only responded with a half-smile and a, “Hey guys. How ya doin’?”

No one responded and Jared’s smile dropped as they walked away.

“Yesterday I was their God,” Jared muttered

“What happened?” Jeremy asked.

“One of those assholes started a rumor that I…use Artweaver instead of PhotoShop,” Jared grumbled.

Jeremy raised his eyebrows, “So they kicked you out?”

“Hostile takeover. But don’t worry. They’ll pay. Now over here...” Jared pointed to a group of teens clad in dark clothes, “Are your basic burn-outs. Skip class, bully others, sell drugs, but mostly…”

“Smoke a lot of weed?” Jeremy asked with a laugh.

Jared stopped walking and his eyes widened. Jeremy stopped as well and tried to find what Jared was fixated on.

“Hey, Connor! Loving the new hair length. Very school shooter chic.” Jared called to a kid walking across the courtyard in front of them.

The kid stopped and turned to look at Jared. Jeremy recognized him as the guy he almost ran into when leaving the guidance counselor's office. The kid, Connor, didn’t respond to Jared, just fixed him with a frightening glare.

“I was just…kidding,” Jared said, with a smile, trying to play it cool, but Jeremy could tell he was at least a little freaked out, “It’s a joke.”

Connor just glared at Jared then turned away.

“You such a…freak,” Jared called after him with a smirk before grabbing Jeremy’s arm and pulling him back towards the building.

“That’s the school’s resident sociopath, Connor. Stay away from him at all costs or he’ll probably murder you.”

Jeremy nodded, honestly believing him. That dude seemed like he had serious issues.

“I guess there’s really only one important group I haven’t gotten to yet,” Jared said gesturing towards a group of people standing around a water fountain, all talking and looking beautiful and popular.

A pretty girl on the taller side with long brown hair was talking to a cute girl with blonde hair and a large yellow sweater hanging off her arms. Next to them was another girl with long brown hair furiously texting on her phone and looking like she was going crazy not getting to talk in the conversation that was going on between the first two girls.

“So Jenna said Madeline was all “I’ll only have sex with you if you beat me at pool.” And then she lost at pool. Deliberately.” The tall brunette explained

“That is so cool” The short blonde replied in a dreamy voice.

“Brooke!” The other girl scoffed.

“I mean slutty!” Brooke, apparently, corrected herself.

The girl who stood off to the side quickly interjected with an “and then Madeline was all –” but she was quickly cut off by the first girl.

“I’m telling this story, Jenna!”

Jared snickered at the interaction that was playing out in front of them.

“Over there you’ve got your basic beautiful people. Now listen. Unless they talk to you first, don’t bother.”

“That your rule or theirs?” Jeremy said, trying to joke.

“Cute,” Jared said, giving an unamused smile.

Jeremy stopped in his tracks. Jeremy couldn’t tear his eyes away from a guy that had turned the corner and was making his way down the hallway. He was tall, his hair was styled perfectly, and he dressed in a sporty red jacket and tattered jeans. He swaggered and exuded confidence and it was obvious every single person was watching him. Jeremy felt his face heat up just from looking at someone so attractive.

“Who is that?” Jeremy whispered in awe

“Dude, that’s Jake Dillinger, he’s pretty cool,” Jared explained with yet another smirk.

“What group is he in?” Jeremy asked

“The “don’t even think about it cuz it’s never gonna happen” group.” Jared laughed and slapped his hand against Jeremy’s shoulder.

Jeremy blushed and watched Jake strut down the hallway. He thought he heard Jared say something under his breath about everyone at the school being gay, but he couldn’t be sure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My tumblr is you-and-i-for-forever so come watch me reblog things about these losers.  
> This is only my second time writing fanfiction and first time writing a multi-chapter one so I hope you like it!  
> Don't forget to smash that kudos button and leave me a comment if you want to see more fics like this.


	2. Reconnections of Strangers and Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to Lululablette and reallydontcare4 for commenting on the first chapter and to everyone who left kudos! Thank you guys so much for reading!  
> If you want to read more of this story, remember that leaving me a comment or kudos helps me motivate to write!

Jeremy and Michael had planned to meet up during lunch. Michael only arrived at school just as the bell was about to ring for class so there was no way for him to meet Jeremy that morning. 

They weren’t able to get any classes together, the ones Michael had signed up for were all full since everyone had signed up last spring and Jeremy had had to pick through the classes that nobody wanted.

Jeremy had ended up in German 1 and Jazz Band.

“Can you even play any instruments?” Michael had laughed over his gaming headset when Jeremy told him over the summer.

“No, but it was either that or Parenting Prep and I did not want to carry around a sack of flour and pretend it’s a child.” Jeremy had responded, tapping away at his controller.

The only upside to this all was that they had lunch together so Jeremy was relieved to at least get to see his friend for 45 minutes every day.

Jeremy had finally been able to navigate his way to the cafeteria. As helpful, needed and wanted as Jared’s explanation of the school’s social stratosphere had been, he hadn’t mentioned anything about where anything was in the building.

After Jeremy had finished gawking at the handsome Jake Dillinger, he realized Jared had disappeared on him. Jeremy was left to try and decipher the messy hand drawn map of the school Evan had given him a few days ago. Evan had even highlighted Jeremy’s classrooms, locker location, bathrooms, and nurse’s office for him.

So when Jeremy was finally about to make it to the lunchroom (after getting turned around several times), he was nervous when he didn’t immediately catch sight of Michael. The lunchroom was large, loud, and crowded and Jeremy didn’t know what to do.

Standing here looking for a friend would make him look weird and awkward but wandering up and down the lunch tables would make him seem pathetic and sad.

Jeremy started to sweat and feel jittery, he needed to make up his mind now before anyone realized what a complete weirdo he was. Jeremy quickly stepped into the line for a school lunch.

Jeremy was fully aware that he had a packed lunch in his bag but he didn’t know what else to do. He stood awkwardly in the lunch line – not really sure what to do with his hands – and hoped he could find Michael in the sea of people.

He made it to the cashier with a foil wrapped burger and some fries; still no sign of Michael anywhere.

Maybe they had gotten it wrong and he and Michael had two separate lunches.

“Jeremy!” A voice yelled from behind him as he stepped out of the lunch line.

Jeremy looked up from his tray, and spun around and, thankfully, finally spotted Michael.

He was in his signature red sweater shirt and white headphones.

“Michael!” Jeremy called, relieved to see his friend.

Michael jogged over to him, maneuvering around slow walking people.

“Dude, what’s up?” Michael laughed when he was finally at Jeremy’s side.

“Nothing, just waiting for you man,” Jeremy said, feeling a large, dorky smile plaster on his face.

Michael bumped his shoulder with his own, “Well let’s go then.”

Jeremy followed him, weaving in between jam-packed tables and packed tables. Michael led him into a separate section of the lunchroom, connected to the first through a pair of opened double doors.

Michael found them a more secluded table and sat down, Jeremy following his lead. 

“Dude, this is so weird being at school with you,” Jeremy said.

“Dude I know, It’s awesome! Now we can just hang for the next 2 years!” Michael said, bumping Jeremy’s shoulder again, “How’s classes so far?”

Jeremy shrugged and started to unwrap his burger. He watched Michael pull a container full of sushi out of his backpack, slightly jealous.

“They’re alright, just boring without you in them,” Jeremy said and took a bite of the burger. He scrunched up his nose, it wasn’t bad…but it wasn’t great either.

Michael gave him a warm smile as he chomped on his sushi rolls.

“How about you?”

Michael hummed, “They’re fine, much rather be getting high in my basement and playing games though.”

Jeremy blew air out of his nose in a laugh and shoved fries into his mouth. Michael opened his mouth to say something else but someone cut him off.

“Hey loser, what’s up?” A voice said from the other side of Michael.

Jeremy leaned in and saw it was Jared. He swung his backpack off and sat down in a seat.

“Nothing,” Michael said and fist bumped Jared.

“How have you already made friends with the new kid?” Jared asked with a laugh, eyeing Jeremy.

Jeremy waved at Jared, a little confused. He didn’t really know that Michael had any friends at school, at least not any he ever mentioned to him.

“Oh, me and Jeremy go way back. We’ve known each other since we were in diapers.” Michael explained twirling his chopsticks around his fingers.

“Dude, we were in preschool, you were the only one still in diapers.” Jeremy corrected him with a snort.

“Yeah, whatever.” Michael scowled at the memory.

Jared pulled out his phone and started typing away at it.

“I didn’t know you guys knew each other. Kind funny.” Jeremy commented.

“We always seem to get paired up to be lab partners in science so we just started hanging out.”

Jared, continuing to mess with his phone, reached over and grabbed Michael’s blue Gatorade. Michael huffed but didn’t both trying to get it back.

“I beat his high score on Super Monkey Ball a few years ago and he won’t leave my house until he breaks it and that’s the only reason we’re friends,” Jared explained, obnoxiously slurping on Michael’s drink.

Jeremy felt sort of weird about the whole situation. Why hadn’t Michael told him about Jared before? It’s not like they didn’t talk basically every single day.

Jeremy watched Jared lean over and show something on his phone to Michael. Michael pointed and laughed at it and Jeremy felt weirder. He hadn’t realized he was going to have to share Michael when he got here.

-

The first day back was bad. Not for any particular reason, most days were just bad for Evan.

He sat down in the middle of the classroom of 5th period English, (sitting in front meant everyone could see every little movement he made and sitting in the back might make him look like a troublemaker) relieved the day was almost over.

“Hello, class!” The teacher, Mr. McCormack called after the bell had rung, trying to bring the students attention to the front of the room. “I hope everyone had a good summer and that you all did the summer reading because we’re jumping right into The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway today.”

There was a low murmur of annoyance in the room at the teacher not exclusively going over the syllabus. Didn’t really mind though. No lesson plan on the first day always meant “Get to Know You” games and he’d have to try and interact with his peers. Not that he didn’t want to try and talk to some of them, he just knew it would just end with everyone thinking he was a complete freak, all sweaty and stuttery. It was just better for him to keep his head down and only talk to someone when he absolutely had to…and sometimes not even then.

Evan pulled out his copy of the book. He had really enjoyed it, he loved the way Hemingway described the traveling and bull fights.

“What did everyone think?” Mr. McCormack asked, looking around for volunteers. Evan watched Alana raise her hand immediately.

The teacher gestured to her then looked down at the attendance clipboard, “Yes, uuuh…”

“Alana Beck, sir.” she offered before clearing her throat to continue, “I thought the book was very romantic, but Hemingway himself was an abusive alcoholic misogynist who squandered half his life hanging around Picasso trying to pick up his leftovers.”

The teacher must have never had Alana in a class before, his eyes widening at the thorough answer.

“Very nice Alana, that was a very interesting and deep take away from this particular story. Would anyone else like to add onto that?”

No one raised their hand. Evan watched Alana look around a little, almost excited that she was the only one to answer on the first day.

“All right well I’ll just call from the attendance sheet…Let’s see…Evan Hansen?”

Evan’s heart jumped into his throat. Why had the teacher picked him? Why out of all the 30 people in the class did he have to call on Evan?

Evan looked up at Mr. McCormack, who was staring at him, waiting for an answer.

“Uuummmmmmmm” Evan let out and quickly flipped through his book, hoping he’d see a passage or clue on what to say. He had completely forgotten what the book was about the second the teacher had called his name.

“Uuhh,” Evan malfunctioned “It’s – The, uh – When – Ummmm.”

The teacher raised an eyebrow at him and Evan thought he might throw up.

Oh god, everyone was staring at him, everyone was thinking that he was crazy. All of his peers were probably laughing at him right now all thinking he was a complete idiot and that he hadn’t read the book.

Evan made a few more noises before he heard giggles behind him. They were laughing at him.

His brain was screaming at him to GET OUT THEY’RE ALL LAUGHING AT YOU YOURE SUCH A FREAK GET OUT OF THERE NOW!

“We’ll come back to you Evan, don’t worry,” The teacher promised and called on someone else from the attendance sheet. Evan could barely hear him.

He felt like he was going to explode. He was all twitchy and his heart was pounding in his chest and it was hard to breathe and he knew everyone was thinking about how stupid that Evan kid was.

The second, literally the second, that the teacher let them have a 5-minute break, Evan fled to the hallway with his backpack. He unzipped it as he walked, looking for his anxiety meds.

His heart felt like it was going to pound out of his chest and he was losing it and everyone could see GET OUT OF THERE NOW!!!

Evan rounded a corner and saw a bathroom. He rushed into it and thought he had found his pill bottle and pulled it out. Only it wasn’t his meds, it was his pencil case that was half stuck under a couple of his notebooks so when he pulled it out, half of the contents of his backpack came with it.

Evan scrambled to pick up everything. He didn’t even know if there was anyone in the bathroom but he tried to shove everything back into his backpack as quickly as possible so no one would happen upon him and think he was a loser.

He glanced in his backpack and still didn’t see his pill bottle.

He heard the lock of a bathroom stall click.

Evan froze. From behind him, he heard someone walk up behind him and speak.

“So – um, what happened to your arm?” The voice asked.

Evan shot up and whipped around. Connor Murphy was standing in front of him, gesturing towards his cast with one hand, the other stuffed in his black jacket pocket. This was not the time to be dealing with a guy like Connor, someone who might blow up on him and make his panic attack worse. Evan hunched over slightly and looked everywhere but at Connor, feeling so incredibly uncomfortable.

If it was bad being Evan Hansen, school nobody, it was even worse to be Connor Murphy, school freak and nut job. Evan knew to stay away from him; he had a violent streak and a bad temper.

Plus he had suddenly vanished at the beginning of last year. He was there one day and then gone another and hadn’t shown back up until…just now. Rumors had spread like wild fire of course. None good. Some said he had gone to jail for killing someone in a hit and run while under the influence and some thought he might have dropped out of school to start a porn career. Most of the rumors figured he had killed himself and the Murphy’s were just trying to cover it up.

But Connor was back now, standing in front of Evan and he had asked him a question.

Evan looked down at his cast and felt flustered, heart beat still thumping in his throat.

“Oh I um,” Evan paused for a second “I fell out of a tree actually.”

“Fell out of a tree?” Connor asked.

Evan made a sound of confirmation. He started tugging at the bottom of his shirt, a bad habit of his. One his therapist was trying to get him to break.

“Well, that is just the saddest fucking thing I have ever heard,” Connor said in a deadpan tone.

Evan let out a breath of awkward laughter, “I know.” 

He just stared down at his cast, thinking how it really was the saddest fucking things, and yet, if Connor knew the whole truth, it would have been even sadder.

“No one’s um,” Connor started and Evan looked up at him, “signed your cast.”

Evan was surprised that Connor even noticed or bothered to point it out. He wasn’t known around the school for being very empathetic.

“My step – My stepbrother did.” Evan flipped his cast over to reveal Jeremy’s small signature that was towards the top of his cast, right by the crook of his elbow.

“Well, it’s kinda sad to only have one signature,” Connor pointed out, looking a little uneasy and unsure about what he was going to say. “…I’ll sign it.”

Evan looked up at him. Connor wanted to sign his cast?

“Oh, you don’t have to.” Evan’s voice came out in almost a rushed whisper.

“Do you, uh, have a Sharpie?” Connor asked in a soft tone.

Evan pulled the marker out of his pocket and awkwardly closed the majority of the distance between himself and Connor. Connor took it and grabbed his broken arm a little too rough.

“Ow,” Evan accidentally let out. He usually just tried to keep quiet when someone bumped into it in the hallway. He didn’t want to cause a scene.

“Oh,” Connor said, and hesitantly bent over a little to start signing.

For half a second, Evan was worried he was going to draw or write something profane on his arm and he’d have to walk around with it for a few more months and then teachers would get mad at him but there’d be no way to get rid of it.

But Connor simply signed his name, albite in a large font that covered all of the top side of his cast.

“Oh great, thanks,” Evan said, looking at the large text. Could he really be that annoyed though? It wasn’t like anyone else was going to need the space. Connor handed him back the marker.

“Yeah well, now we can both pretend that we have friends,” Connor said, kind of shaking his head and shrugging.

How did Connor know Evan didn’t have any friends? Was it that obvious? Did he look that sad and desperate? Did his face just scream “lonely weirdo”?

“That’s a good point,” Evan said under his breath and reached for his backpack that was still sitting on the ground, ready to leave from this conversation.

Evan could feel Connor’s eyes on him and Evan started to head towards the bathroom door when he spoke again.

“Is this yours?” Connor asked and Evan heard rattling.

He turned to look at what he was talking about and Connor was holding his bottle of anxiety medication.

“It rolled over there,” Connor gestured over to the stalls “And it had your name on it, Evan Hansen, that’s your name, right?”

“Oh yeah, yeah, no that’s just my stupid, it’s just a stupid–” Evan reached for his meds but Connor pulled them back to look at the label.

“Alprazolam? That’s some pretty powerful stuff.” Connor said with a thin lipped smile, finally handing it back to Evan.

“Oh yeah I know…it’s actually not mine – it’s my stepbrothers he, um needs it um right now and that’s why I was going there now.” Evan finished the lie lamely. He didn’t want anyone knowing that he took meds. It was already embarrassing having these issues, he didn’t want people thinking he was clinically insane and needed pills to sedate him.

“Cool…well bye,” Connor said with a slight wave and walked past Evan, out of the bathroom. Evan watched him go.

Evan stood there for a few more minutes before he realized that his panic attack had calmed down a little. His heart was still racing and he was sweaty all over, but the dread and panic that was almost spilling out of him had subsided for the most part.

Evan packed him meds back into his backpack and slowly made his way back to his English classroom, thinking how lucky it was that Connor had decided not to try and kick his ass or kill him or something.

Though Connor Murphy did seemed a lot different now. Much calmer and somewhat subdued, not at all the same person who had slammed others into lockers or shoved them to the ground. Evan decided it was still a safe bet that this wasn’t a permanent fix and the smart thing to do was to avoid Connor at all costs so not to be one of those kids who got pushed to the ground.

…Again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Sorry if it was a little shorter than the first one but this one didn't follow the plot of the movie as much so it gave me more freedom o use my imagination (whether or not that's a good thing, I don't know)
> 
> Also sorry to rehash the whole Evan-Connor-computer lab scene. I wasn't sure how else I wanted their first interaction to go so it seemed safe to stick more towards the original.
> 
> My tumblr is you-and-i-for-forever so come watch me reblog things about these losers.  
> This is only my second time writing fanfiction and first time writing a multi-chapter one so I hope you like it!  
> Don't forget to smash that kudos button and leave me a comment if you want to see more fics like this.


	3. Days Will Turn To Weeks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! I really appreciate everyone whos read this so far. This chapter is dedicated to reallydontcare4 and Macy9534 for commenting on my last chapter!
> 
> I'm so happy to be getting into more characters point of views and finishing up introducing the rest of the characters (still missing Jenna and Christine though!)

The first couple weeks at school hadn’t really gone how Jeremy had wanted, but just about how he had expected. He didn’t really talk to anyone besides Michael and Jared and no one really even acknowledged he was there.

Some kid with a red streak in his hair and always in a muscle shirt took to calling him “tall-ass.” So that was…fun.

Jeremy signed, thinking that this was all just like his old school; practically invisible except for bullies.

A bell rang suddenly and Jeremy remembered he was in 3rd period jazz band lost in thought. He quickly stood up to put away the saxophone he borrowed for the class so he could get to lunch.

He swung around and accidentally caught the side of the music stand with his saxophone. The stand and libretto papers went flying in all directions. Jeremy turned bright red and quickly squatted down to frantically pick up papers, snickers and whispers following him down.

Jeremy’s mind was racing, telling him how stupid he was and how this was the reason no one wanted to be caught dead talking to him. He saw a shadow looming over his shoulder and he had the sinking feeling it was someone ready to make a joke at his expense.

It wasn’t, just Zoe, the girl who played the guitar in the jazz band, bending over to help him gather up his sheet music. She was so pretty and cool and smiled at him when she handed him the fallen papers.

“Thanks,” Jeremy said with a bashful smile.

“No problem. I’ve done that a bunch of times too, they’re pretty easy to knock over.” Zoe said.

Jeremy let out a small laugh and nodded in agreement, not sure if she was just trying to be nice, but not really caring either way.

“Hey, you’re new, right?” Zoe asked.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m new. I’m Jeremy. I went to Glacier Peak before, down in the valley.” Jeremy explained.

“Cool, I’m Zoe,” Zoe said and stuck her hand out to shake Jeremy’s “Why’d you switch schools?”

Jeremy shook her hand and continued to spout out information, so ecstatic to have someone to talk to, “My dad got married and he and my stepmom bought a house closer to this high school. Plus my stepbrother goes here and they didn’t want to move him to a different school for his senior year.”

“Who’s your brother?”

“Evan Hansen.”

Zoe had a thoughtful look on his face before saying, “I don’t think I know him.”

“Oh, yeah, uh, most people don’t. He keeps to himself mostly.”

“Nice,” Zoe said with a nod and a smile.

It seemed like the end of the conversation but Jeremy really didn’t want it to be.

“Do you have any brothers or sisters who go here?” It was the first thing Jeremy thought of as Zoe grabbed her guitar case.

Zoe pulled a face, “I have a brother who goes here, Connor Murphy.”

Jeremy didn’t mean to let her see his surprise. She just seemed so normal and calm in comparison.

She laughed “Yep, that’s my brother, crazy, psycho dude.”

Jeremy awkwardly smiled, “If you hadn’t told me, I never would have guessed you guys were related if that makes you feel any better,” Jeremy said

Zoe snorted and nodded, “That’s good to know.”

She slung her backpack over a shoulder and shifted her guitar case to the other hand. She shot him a peace sign and a sweet smile. “Nice meeting you Jeremy, see you tomorrow,” Zoe said and left the band room.

Jeremy smiled broadly and waved.

He’d made his first friend!

-

Rich was not impressed. This whole situation was so…he didn’t even know what to think. Catastrophic? Tragic? Heartbreaking? Stupid?

Rich was standing with his best friend Jake at their lockers, waiting for class to start. Jake was digging through his locker, looking for something for the last couple minutes.

On the other side of Jake were two of Jake’s other friends, Chloe and Brooke, who were chatting up a storm.

“Did you see what Stephanie Kipp was wearing yesterday?” Chloe asked, whirling a stand of hair around her finger.

“No, what was it?” Brooke asked

“It was bright yellow culottes! Isn’t that gross?” Chloe asked

Brooke’s mouth fell open in real surprise “What? No way!”

“Yeah! Yeah! I’m literally not even kidding. I saw her in math yesterday and that’s what she was actually literally wearing and I was like what the actual fuck.” Chloe said 

Rich snorted, happy not to be wrapped up in their stupid girl conversation. The only reason Rich even put up with them was because Jake and Chloe had dated freshman year and stayed friends.

“You ready for practice tonight Jake?” Rich asked, trying to drown out the conversation next to them.

Jake turned back from his locker with a smile, “You know it, bro. I’m so ready for the meet on Saturday. We’re gonna kick ass!”

“Yeah, the Mavericks are gonna eat ass!” Rich laughed

He reached out his hand and Jake smacked fists together in a secret handshake. Jack reached up and smacked Rich’s face. Rich laughed and shoved him.

“You wanna go?” Jake playfully laughed and slammed his locker closed “Huh? Let’s go!”

“We’re gonna go? Let’s do it!” Rich grinned and suddenly Jake had his arms around Rich’s neck.

Jake started laughing and grinding his fist over Rich’s head.

“Fuck Jake stop!” Rich yelled, still laughing.

He squirmed and tried to get out of it with no luck. Jake finally let him go after a few more moments. Rich felt a little breathless and his heart was beating fast but laughed anyway. He snapped his arm forward and punched Jake in the gut, it wasn’t that hard, Jake had tensed up but he let out a noise like it had been a more powerful blow.

“God you guys, don’t be so gay.” Chloe sneered

Rich tensed up and snapped at her, “Fuck off Chloe. Don’t be such a bitch.”

He felt like his blood was gonna fucking boil every time that word was associated with him. He wasn’t a fucking faggot.

“Hey, it’s cool.” Jake chuckled, sticking out his tongue a little.

Rich reached up to mess with his hair, making sure all the dyed red strands were aligned back in the middle. He looked out at the stream of students walking past, looking to get some anger out of him. Chloe had seriously pissed him off just now.

Oh hell yeah, here comes tall-ass. He waited until the new kid was right in front of him

“Virgin” He coughed as loudly as he could, then coughed a few times for good measure.

Tall-ass glanced over at him and turned bright red. Rich grinned, feeling good. He heard Chloe, Brooke, and a few other people around snicker.

“Oh, sorry tall-ass, didn’t see you there.” Rich said, feigning innocence, “Wouldn’t have said that if I had known, but it’s pretty obvious already.”

The kid cast his eyes towards the ground and scurried off, face as red as a cherry tomato.

Fuck yeah! Rich felt great.

“God he’s pathetic.” Rich said leaning back at the locker, looking over at Jake.

Jake pulled his head out from his locker, “What?”  
Rich rolled his eyes, Jake hadn’t even been paying attention or listening for the past couple minutes.

“Uh! Yes, he’s so gross.” Chloe scoffed “I bet he is a virgin.”

“Oooh, he’s in my chemistry class. I thought he seemed nice.” Brooke said

“Who?” Jake asked

“That new kid, Jerry or whatever.” Chloe said

“Seems like a fucking loser if you ask me,” Rich said

“I heard he and Zoe Murphy are friends,” Jake shrugged.

Chloe let out a mean laugh, “Yeah if you like sad, ugly freaks.”

Rich snickered, maybe Chloe wasn’t that bad.

Jake shrugged again, “I don’t know you guys. He’s kinda cute.”

“WHAT?!” Rich, Chloe, and Brooke yelled together.

Rich couldn’t believe what he was fucking hearing. Was he in the twilight zone? Was Jake crazy? Yeah, Jake like guys just as much as girls and Rich didn’t really give a shit but just…TALLASS?!

“Yeah, I mean, dorky hipsters are kinda in right now, right?” Jake asked with a laugh “Besides, he’s all people are talking about, so might as well, right?”

Rich’s mouth was hanging open as he watched Jake walk away, headed towards first period.

What the actual fuck just happened? Rich felt like he was going to black out. Why the hell was he even interest in that guy?

He looked over at Brooke and Chloe who were furiously texting away on their phones.

-

Evan, his mom, Jeremy, and Mr. Heere were all sat around the kitchen table.

Mom used to be gone a lot more with work and classes, but she was able to take some time off now thanks to the combined income of her and Mr. Heere’s. She was starting to learn how to cook properly too so they were having home cooked teriyaki chicken and white rice instead of take out.

Evan tried not to pick at his food. He really loved homemade food but he really wasn’t hungry. He never really was.

“How was school these past couple days, you guys?” His mom asked.

“It was okay - alright, you know. Nothing…too exciting happened” Evan lied, thinking back to the numerous panic and anxiety attacks he’d already had.

“I started talking to a few new people at school,” Jeremy answered, looking like he was vibrating in excitement.

Evan looked over at him, slightly jealous of Jeremy’s luck at the school in just a few weeks, while he had been there for 3 years.

“Hey that’s great!” Hr. Heere said.

“What are their names? Are they in your grade?” Evan’s mom asked.

“One is Zoe Murphy” Evan perked up at the name, “She’s in my jazz class and we started talking a few days ago. She’s really nice.”

Evan felt his stomach drop a little.

“I’m really proud of you son.” Mr. Heere said, “Who are the other kids?”

“Well that one isn’t really a friend but uh,” Jeremy’s face turned a little red. “His name’s Jake and I uh actually think he’s gonna ask me out…like on a date.”

“Wait Jake Dillinger?” Evan asked

“Yeah. I heard from Zoe’s girlfriend Alana that some girl named Madeline saw on twitter that some of Jake’s friends posted that he had talked about me and then yesterday when I was walking down that hallway he said hi to me and smiled.”  
Evan inwardly cringed. Jake didn’t really seem the best kind of person. Plus this might all just be a prank on Jeremy. But Jeremy must be really excited about it because he rarely offered up that much personal information at family dinner.

Evan glanced over and saw his mom and Mr. Heere exchange a look. His mom cleared her throat awkwardly.

“Boys, Paul and I were actually just talking before you started school about rules we wanted to set up now that we’re together and...” His mom trailed off looking at Mr. Heere.

“We’ve decided that we don’t want either of you dating until you get out of high school.” Mr. Heere stated, trying to look authoritative.

“What?!” Evan and Jeremy asked at once, though Jeremy seemed to shout it.

“Well, you know, we were both talking about how horrible both our dating lives were before we met and how it really started because we had started dating the wrong people in high school and it was distracting us from our school work and lives so we figured that we should just take away the option so you wouldn’t have to worry about it.” Mom rambled, looking a little unsure.

Evan felted shocked. This felt sort of out of nowhere. Evan had never even really talked to his mom about dating before so it seemed strange she felt the need to create a rule for something he didn’t have anything to do with.

“Dad, Heidi, that’s not fair. I really think Jake might ask me out and I’ll the only person at our school who’s not dating.” Jeremy said, looking back and forth between the two adults.

“We just want to protect you Jeremy. Plus, your brother doesn’t date.”

Evan felt a little flustered. Of course he didn’t date, who would want to date him anyway? That didn’t mean he did want to date, he wished someone would ask him out, not that he’d be able to function and actually say yes.

“But no one even wants to date Evan!” Jeremy said, almost smacking his hands down on the table.

“Hey now,” Mom said, in defense of Evan, but Evan knew he was right.

“I wouldn’t – I wouldn’t want to date anyone from school anyway.” Evan said, feeling his eyes start to swell a little. It was almost impressive how fast his stepbrother had turned on him just to date someone like Jake Dillinger.

Mr. Heere looked from Evan’s mom to Evan to Jeremy and back again, trying to make up his mind about something.

“Okay, here’s how we solve this one. Old rule out. New rule: Jeremy can date...” Jeremy’s face brightened, “when Evan does.”

Jeremy’s face fell.

“Are you sure about that, Paul?” Mom asked, looking unsure herself.

“Of course,” Mr. Heere said not sounding that confident.

“But what if Evan never dates?” Jeremy asked in horror.

Evan’s cheeks turned scarlet.

“Then you can officially date when you go off to college.” Mr. Heere said, getting up from the table to clear his plate. Mom joined him and they walked into the kitchen together.

Evan looked across the table at Jeremy, who had a look of disbelief on his face, and wanted to say something but had no clue what. He didn’t want him thinking Evan had any sort of part in this.

Jeremy suddenly stood up and made eye contact with Evan. He wasn’t glaring but the look is his eyes was enough to make Evan shrink down on himself. Jeremy departed from the dining room and was up the stairs in a moment. Evan was left alone at the table listening to Mom and Mr. Heere talking in hushed tones in the kitchen.

Evan sighed.

-

Jeremy was still pissed about his dad’s new rule when he and Evan had arrived at school the next day. The most popular guy at school wanted to date him! But he couldn’t do anything about it! Jeremy wanted to be angry at Evan, wanted to blame him for all of this, but he knew it wasn’t his fault. Why did Evan have to be so awkward and weird? If he wasn’t maybe someone would actually date him and then Jeremy could say yes if Jake asked him out.

Jeremy was still thinking about it by the time lunch rolled around and he slumped down next to Michael in the cafeteria.

“What’s up Jer?” Michael asked, looking up from a Big Gulp cup filled with peach slushie.

“Nothing.” Jeremy mumbled, picking at the dry looking burger he had picked up in the lunch line.

“It’s just that,” He huffed and rolled his eyes, “I heard that Jake Dillinger was going to ask me out, like…the Jake Dillinger and so I mentioned it to my dad and Evan’s mom last night and they said that we’re not allowed to date until we graduate high school! But then I said that wasn’t fair so then they said they I’m allowed to date when Evan dates! Can you believe that? Like–Like–Like Evan doesn’t even have any friends really and he told me before he’s never dated anyone before so he’s never gonna date anyone and I’m never gonna date Jake and it’s so stupid!”

Jeremy crossed his arms and slumped onto the cafeteria table, grumbling under his breath.

Michael and Jared, who had come in just before Jeremy had started his rant, exchanged a look.

“Wait, what?” Jared asked.

Jeremy rolled his eyes again, “I can’t date until Evan dates because my dad and stepmom are sadists and want me to be miserable.”

“Kinky,” Jared interjected, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Why the hell would you want to date Jake Dillinger anyway?” Michael said, pulling a face.

“Dude, Michael, he’s so cool and, just, have you seen him? He’s so tall and he’s always wearing that red jacket and he’s so hot. Literally, everyone wants to date him.” Jeremy explained.

“I’d date ‘em,” Jared said, raising a hand.

“See? He’s just so…cool. And he wants to date me! Me!” Jeremy looked at Michael, expecting to see some sort of realization in his friend’s eyes on how groundbreaking this was.

Michael gave him a skeptical look and shrugged, “I mean, whatever makes you happy dude.” 

A sigh escaped him for the billionth time today.

“Can’t really be happy when no one wants to date my anti-social stepbrother. Can’t have Jake till someone wants Evan.” Jeremy grumbled and turned back to his food.

The three of them sat in silence for a while, before Jared started messing around on his phone and showing things to Michael. Jeremy rolled his eyes, but not about Jake this time.

It wasn’t until the end of lunch that Jeremy spoke again.

“Do you wanna hang out after school today Michael? Play some video games?” Jeremy asked.

“Actually Michael and I gotta work on a project for History together. We’re writing about the American Revolution.” Jared said in an exaggerated bored tone.

“Oh, sounds lame,” Jeremy said.

“Yeah, it does,” Michael said with a weird, uncomfortable look on his face.

Jeremy shrugged but then his brain paused at the thought of Jared and Michael hanging out in Michael’s basement, working on homework, together, alone, without Jeremy there. For some reason, that thought seemed to make Jeremy feel even more annoyed at the day, though he didn’t exactly know why.

The bell rang and the three on them stood up and said their goodbyes. 

-

Michael and Jared were sitting in Michael’s basement after school playing Halo. Michael tried to focus on the game but mixed emotions from the school day left him distracted. After Jeremy had told him all about the Jake situation, he felt so spacey and out of it.

Michael had been so ecstatic when he heard that Jeremy was going to be moving to his school. He was his best friend and wanted to be around Jeremy all the time. Plus with Jeremy so close by maybe something more could happen between them…

Michael had basically been in love with Jeremy since they were kids. Jeremy was so dorky and nice and completely adorable and Michael had hoped that now that Jeremy was here they could grow closer and maybe one day he could tell him about his feelings…but that was all ruined now. Thanks to Jake-Jerkoff-Dillinger. Who the hell did Jake think he was? He was just some asshole that walked around with an asshole face and looked like an asshole. What did Jeremy even see in the guy?

“MICHAEL” Jared loudly articulated, pulling Michael from his thoughts.

“What?” Michael asked.

“You haven’t moved in a few minutes, I’ve killed you like 40 times. It’s awesome for my kill streak, but are you even gonna try to beat me?”

“Why did you say we were hanging out today? Jeremy said he wanted to hang out and-” Michael started but Jared quickly cut him off.

“Chill dude. You literally looked like you were going to explode after what Jeremy said about Jake at lunch. Not a good idea for you to have to hear more about Dreamy Dillinger from your baby faced boyfriend.” Jared snorted.

Michael huffed, “What am I even supposed to do now? I’ve waited 5 years to tell Jeremy that I like him and now he’s going after someone like Jake. How am I supposed to compete with that?”

“’Kay few thoughts,” Jared said, pausing the game after sniping Michael’s character again, “1. Jeremy described Jake as tall, cool, attractive, red jacketed, and wants to date him. Who else do we know like that?”

Michael cautiously pointed at himself with a raised eyebrow.

“Great, so you have that going for you, basically just Jake but better, which leads us to; 2. Jeremy can’t even date right now so you got time to figure out how to make Jeremy see that you’re everything he wants and more.” Jared explained and wiggled his fingers in a magical way.

“How are we gonna do that?” Michael asked.

“We?” Jared snorted.

“Jared,” Michael grunted, annoyed.

“Yeah, yeah, just kidding, lighten up.” Jared said, “All we gotta do is find someone to date Evan so that Jeremy’s free to date and then you can swoop in and grab him before Jake does.”

Michael contemplated the plan for a while and came up with the obvious flaw.

“Who are we going to get to date Evan? I think everyone just thinks he’s weird.” Michael said.

“Gotta find a kindred spirit. Another social outcast that’s desperate enough to connect with someone like Evan and visa verse.” Jared explained

“Who is it?” Michael asked

“Dude I don’t know. I’ve had like 4 hours to come up with this plan.” Jared said and unpaused the game.

-

The next day at school neither of them had any idea on who to ask. They were in biology, filtering through anyone they could think of.

“Class, I’m going to step out and grab your worksheets from the printer. Start dissecting your frogs please.” The teacher said

“What about Mallard Crawler?” Michael asked

“Dropped out last year. Payton Zeller?” Jared responded

“She’s drunk all the time.” Michael shot back

“Dustin Kroft?”

“Asshole, too brutally honest. Jennifer Jace?”

“Alliterated names are stupid.” 

“Tristan Anderson?” Michael tried, pulling on a pair of rubber gloves his teacher had provided for them.

“No.”

“Madeline Smith?”

“No.”

“Brock Johnson?”

“No.”  


“Sarah Campbell?”

“No.”

“Okay well, I really don’t know who else then,” Michael sighed, deeply irritated. 

He picked up the scalpel and sliced into the live frog’s stomach, noticing Jared look away when he did so. 

Michael pulled the skin back and started carefully digging through the frogs guts with small surgical tweezers. He almost crushed the bladder when he felt a hard jab from Jared’s elbow. Michael whipped his head over, glaring at Jared until he noticed what he was focused on across the room.

Michael spotted the scary kid, Connor, sitting alone at a lab table. No one had partnered up with him. He didn’t look too interested in dissecting the frog, his brow furrowed. If Michael didn’t know any better he might have thought that he was slightly uncomfortable or uneasy about the frog in front of him.

“Hey, what about him?” Jared gestured towards Connor.

“No way dude. I heard he lit a state trooper on fire. He just did a year in juvi.” Michael whispered, not wanting Connor to hear him.

“Yeah, well, then at least he’s looking a lay on the outside.” Jared chuckled.

“I'm serious, man. He probably sold his own liver on the black market for that jacket.” Michael said.

They watched as Connor freed the frog from its restraints and flipped it over so it was sitting on its stomach. He lightly poked the frog’s side and it croaked softly. A ghost of a smile just barely touched Connor’s face.

Compassionate. Caring. Empathy. All in that one small act. Coupled with looking pretty sad and lonely and–

“He’s our guy.” Michael sighed and Jared grinned.

“Great,” Jared said and bounced up from this seat before Michael could stop him. He strolled over to Connor who was watching the frog hop around the table.

Michael saw Connor spot Jared getting closer and he immediately bristled. His face went dark and he glared at Jared. Maybe it wasn’t the best plan to let Jared go talk him into the idea.

“Hey Connor, how you doing?” Jared started in a sing-song voice “Listen I…”

Connor quickly snatched his backpack from behind his chair, plucked the frog up off the table, and stormed out of the classroom; all before Jared could get out another word.

Jared turned to Michael and shrugged, “Should have seen that one coming. That psychopath and I have never really played nice before.”

Michael groaned as Jared sat back down next to him.

“How do we get him to date Evan?” Michael asked.

Jared sat in silence for a few minutes looking in deep thought when he finally spoke again, “We could pay him.”

“How do you know he needs money? Isn’t the Murphy family hella rich or something?” Michael asked, going back to pulling organs out of a frog.

“I heard from Jenna Roland that Murphy boy was cut off so he’ll be needing it,” Jared said

“Actually, I don’t know about this…” Michael said, suddenly very hesitant.

“Michael, you want to date Jeremy, right? Then this is the way to do it. Plus we’re helping Connor, so many people end up sucking dick for meth but all he has to do is date some weird kid instead.” Jared explained, using his hands to talk.

“But we don’t have any money,” Michael fired back. “We don’t even have enough to buy Destiny 2 when it comes out.”

“Yeah, well, what we need is a backer,” Jared said.

“What’s that?” Michael asked.

“Someone with money, who’s stupid,” Jared explained with a toothy grin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah yeah! Lots of shit happening this chapter! Sorry if it was choppy for some of you, but all these little bits felt connected to me so I didn't want to just spread them onto other chapters.
> 
> Fun Fact: I tried writing the Rich-Jake scene from Jake's perspective but I actually have no clue what's running through that boy's head so I had to switch it to Rich.
> 
> My tumblr is you-and-i-for-forever so come watch me reblog things about these losers.  
> This is only my second time writing fanfiction and first time writing a multi-chapter one so I hope you like it!  
> Don't forget to smash that kudos button and leave me a comment if you want to see more fics like this.


	4. Into Action Part A

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I haven't posted in a while! I got my wisdom teeth taken out last Friday and my job training started on Monday so I've been a hell of a lot busier than I want to be! School starts on the 26th so updates will definitely be coming out a lot less frequently after that. :p
> 
> Special shout out to Becher, Lululablette, psychically_linked, and AzmineJunet for commenting on the last chapter and to everyone who left kudos!

“Are you lost?” Jake asked eyebrow raised.

Jared looked like a fucking idiot. He had tried his best to seem cool and confident as he swaggered across the lunchroom, towards the large group of popular assholes.

Fuck! Why were they all so tall and good looking? Jared had made his way past a few of them to sit down in a chair next to Jake. Jake had slowly looked up from his phone, with a face that asked what the actual fuck?

“No, actually, I just came by to chat,” Jared said, smearing a smirk onto his face.

“Uuuuh…we don't chat,” Jake deadpanned, wiggling his hand at him in a dismissive manner. A few of Jake’s friends snickered.

Jared forced his mouth into a smile, trying to seem nice, but really wanting to knock Jake’s phone out of his hand and walk away. God, what a complete douchebag. 

He was doing this for Michael and he was not going to screw this up. “Well, actually, I thought that I'd run an idea by you. Just to see if you're interested.” Jared was gonna try and schmooze the hell out of this guy.

Jake blinked at him a few times before giving a disinterested “I’m not, thanks,” and turned back to his phone.

Jared held out his hands in front of him, almost like he was trying to calm a wild animal rather than trying to keep this idiots attention. “Well, hear me out. Now...you want to date Jeremy Heere, right?”

“Who?” Jake asked

_Was he fucking serious?_

“The uh…the new kid.”

“Oh yeah,” Jake said, having the decency to almost look just the slightest bit embarrassed.

“Okay, but he can't go out with you because his parents have a rule that he can’t date until his older stepbrother, Evan, dates, but no one will go out with him because he’s sad and weird, right?” Jared said, feeling like he was talking to a brick wall.

Jake rested his head on his hand, looking entirely done with what Jared had to say. “Does this conversation have a purpose?”

Jared didn't think he could roll his eyes hard enough.

“What I think you need to do is hire someone who'll go out with Evan. Someone who’s just as lame and invisible as he is so he doesn’t feel that way anymore and you can go out with Jeremy.” Jared said

“Why not just date the loser yourself then?” A guy from across the table snorted.

Jared smiled and flipped him off.

“Look I already figured out the perfect person,” Jared explained, pointing towards the windows on the adjacent wall. Connor was currently sitting alone on the far side of the courtyard, smoking weed. Jake squinted at him before his eyes became huge.

“That guy?” Jake asked, alarmed, “I heard he ate a live duck once.”

Jared nodded, he had heard that too. “Everything but the beak and feet. He’s a loser, Evan’s a loser; clearly, he’s a solid investment.”

Jake continued to stare at Connor, eyebrows furrowed. Jared could almost feel the wheels in this neanderthals head start to turn.

“What's in it for you?” Jake finally asked, turning back towards Jared.

“Hey. I’m walkin’ down the hall and say hello to you. You say hello to me,” Jared smiled, quick on his feet to come up with a reason. It was probably pathetic, but he really wouldn’t mind if Jake actually did that.

“Yeah yeah. I get it. You’re cool by association.” Jake paused for a moment, before shrugging. “I’ll think about it.”

“Nice,” Jared said usual smirk returning to his mouth, relieved his plan seemed like it was working.

“We’re done now,” Jake said, raising an eyebrow.

Jared had overstayed his welcome at the table of beautiful, untouchable gods. Now to return to the world of the mortals.

“Yeah.” Jared nodded and got up and crossed the cafeteria back over to where he had left a very upset looking Michael.

“What are you doing getting him involved?” Michael asked, standing up to meet him, clearly upset. To be fair, Jared had just sort of just gotten up from the table randomly and walked over to Jake with no explanation of Michael. Thankfully Jeremy wasn't around today to see Michael's head almost explode.

“Relax. We let him pretend he’s calling the shots. While he’s setting things up, you have time with Jeremy,” Jared said sitting down at the table and grabbed for Michael’s Flaming Hot Cheetos. He began to chow down. Michael sank down next to him and opened and shut his mouth a few times.

“That is a good idea,” Michael replied, with the same tone and express as before.

Jared laughed and patted his back, “Yeah, I know.”

-

God Connor hated all of this. He had been able to force himself to get to every day of school so far but it was all a fucking horrible. All the whispers and the glances and the laughing. Someone had stuffed garbage into his bag when he wasn’t looking and had slipped a note into his locker telling him to kill himself.

He had tried to convince his mom to let him do online classes or homeschool but she had said that he needed to be around people his age, interact with others, try and make friends. She had no clue what this school was like though, how no one was ever going to want to be his friend, let alone talk to him.

He sat in the courtyard, blunt hanging off his lip, flipping through a history textbook. So fucking boring, but Connor really, really, needed his parents off his back so he was willing to do some homework to get that to happen.

Connor rubbed at his eyes, every part of his feeling tired and rundown but suddenly felt a presence and eyes on him. He jolted his head to looked up.

It was some guy Connor didn’t know, he felt caught off guard.

What the fuck did this guy want? Connor tried to keep his anger from flaring up, but it was just his gut reaction.

“Hey, how ya doin’?” The guy asked him with a smile that was half nervous-half charismatic. Weird, Connor usually only got the full nervous smiles.

Connor glared at him then looked away, trying to ignore him. He really hoped he wasn’t going to get food thrown at him or something shitty like that.

“I had some great duck last night...” He said.

“Do I know you?” Connor finally spoke, looking back at him. God, he was annoying.

“I’m Jake Dillinger,” He said like Connor was supposed to know who he was.

“Cool, bye,” Connor said, standing up and starting to pack his stuff up. Better get out of here before this idiot made Connor do something that would wind him up in the principal’s office, or worse, that freaky guidance councilors office.

“Hey, wait! Uh, you see that guy?” Jake said, pointing out a familiar looking guy, making his way through across the crowded courtyard. It was the kid from the bathroom a while ago. From what he could see, he still had the cast wrapped around his arm.

“Yeah,” Connor replied, just the slightest bit curious.

“That’s Evan Hansen. I want you to go out with him.” Jake said

Connor’s expression twisted and he felt like ripping this asshole's face off. Connor shoved him hard instead, hoping he would fall to the ground. Jake barely lost his balance from the action, pissing Connor off more.

“Look. I can’t take out his brother until Evan starts dating. Apparently, his parents got this rule where they-” Jared said

Connor interrupted, “Touching story. Not my problem,” He pulled the strap of his bag over his head and started walking away, flipping Jake off.

“Would you be willing to make it your problem if I provide generous compensation?” Jake called, a certain tone in his voice.

Connor paused, mid getaway.

“You’re going to pay me to take out some guy?” Connor asked over his shoulder, not wanting to turn around and look the creep in the eye.

“Mmm hmm,” Jake said.

Connor’s eyes locked onto the Evan kid, still walking around. He looked awkward and sad and desperate and nervous.

“How much?” Connor asked

“20 bucks.” Jake offered

He watched as Evan bumped into someone, his face turned bright red and he seemed to stammer through a few sentences at the person he bumped into before he ran off.

“Fine. 30.” Jake said, quickly revising.

“75 bucks.” Connor threw back, finally turning back towards Jake. His parents cut off his funds a while ago and he was in desperate shape for pot money.

“This isn’t a negotiation. Take it or leave it, freak.” Jake said, looking Connor up and down.

“50 bucks and we’ve got a deal,” Connor snapped back, crossing his arms, scowling.

Jake shrugged and reached into his wallet, pulling out a 50 dollar bill. He handed Connor the money.

_Stupid rich fuck_

Connor allowed himself for a second to forget that his family was probably wealthier than this guy’s.

“I’ll be back for an update,” Jake said then turned and walked away.

Connor stared down at the easiest 50 bucks he ever made. He pocketed the money and rolled his eyes. If that moron seriously thought that he was actually going to do this, he truly was a moron. Connor snorted, he was just going to blow this whole thing off and that Jake guy could just kiss his ass.

Connor stuffed the money into his pocket then started to walk off. His eyes glanced over to where the girl Evan had bumped into stood, noisily gossiping about “the weirdo that just ran into her.” He frowned.

…Connor was going to need more money for weed pretty soon. 50 bucks really wasn’t going to last him long…plus he was going to need gas money to get to his dealer's house…

Fuck.

-

Evan kept chanting in his head that the day was almost done and he could leave school soon. Things had gone…alright, today. Nothing too horrible. He was happy to not have to lie to Dr. Sherman about it at therapy tomorrow.

Evan put his Spanish and calculus textbooks into his locker. He stuffed his binder and a few notebooks into his backpack then shut the door, pushing hard to make sure it closed all the way. He turned around and saw someone right behind him. Evan jolted back in surprise, hitting the lockers. Evan felt his face heat up in embarrassment. His eyes slowly slid up from the black combat boots all the way up to Connor Murphy’s face.

Connor gave an awkward, thin-lipped smile, “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

“No, n-no that's okay- it’s-it's okay,” Evan said, try to calm down his racing heartbeat.

Connor didn't move or say or do anything. They stood there for a second before Evan got uncomfortable and reached over to pick at his cast.

“Hey, you still got my name,” Connor said, pointing towards Evan’s arm. Evan glanced down then back up at Connor for half a second. His hand started to trace the lines of Connor’s name scrawled on his cast.

“Uh, yeah. I don’t- I don't get the, uh, cast off for a few more weeks or maybe even another month, the doctors haven't told me yet when it's gonna be yet but I'm sure I'll find out soon, hopefully pretty soon, and its sharpie so uh yeah...can't really take it off.” Evan said a mile a minute.

He couldn’t tell if Connor’s expression was annoyance, amusement, or both, “I was just kidding.” He offered.

“Oh huh…yeah, ye-yeah I knew that,” Evan said, hands pulling at the hem of his shirt, trying to laugh it off. He looked down at the ground, feeling stupid.

He chanced a glance back up at Connor. Why was he still standing there? This was so uncomfortable, he didn’t know what to say or do or think. He rubbed at his face.

“So, um, do you want to hang out sometime?” Connor asked, eyes glancing around the hallway.

Evan stiffened up and slowly tilted his head to eye at Connor.

He let out a small, uncomfortable laugh, in a very Evan fashion, “Um uh um, n-no thanks. It’s because um- it’s not because of any reason or anything. I’m-I’m-I’m just really busy right now and I need to um help my mom after school and do homework so I can't do that.” Evan lied a mile a minute, worrying his shirt again, avoiding eye contact.

There was a nother awkward pause. “Okay, well see you around,” Connor said with a shrug and a wave.

Evan watched him leave, staring him down in confusion. That was bizarre, to say the least. Evan had spent most of the school years trying to avoid Connor, and now in less than a month had interacted with him twice.

Connor was definitely different that sophomore year. Evan just couldn’t put his finger on why.

-

“We’re screwed,” Michael said, exasperated.

He and Jared had been trailing Connor the whole day, seeing when he was going to make his move on Evan. The interaction between Evan and Connor had gone about as well as expected. Why the hell did Michael think this was going to work? Everyone was terrified of angry Connor Murphy and all the vicious rumors, whether truthful or lies, that trailed after him.

“Hey, no, hey. I don’t want to hear that defeatist attitude.” Jared turned to him, putting his hands on his shoulders and shaking him “I want to hear you upbeat.”

“We’re screwed!” Michael said with mock enthusiasm.

“There you go!" Jared said, stooping to his level of sarcasm. "Just give him time. Evan just has to realize that Connor isn’t going to give up and he’ll eventually just go out with him to make him stop asking since it makes him uncomfortable or something like that.” Michael felt like Jared was trying to explain this to him like he was a small child that had no clue what was happening.

“I hope you’re right, man.” Michael sighed and quickly made their way to their separate classes when the bell rang.

-

Jeremy was walking down a hallway in the school, finally feeling like he was getting a handle on his schedule and the school layout. He was glancing down at his phone, shooting Michael a quick message about hanging out this weekend and happened to glance up as he rounded a corner.

There was Jake. Handsome as hell Jake. No one should be allowed to be that absolutely perfect looking and- Jake was looking at him. Jake was looking _at him!_ Jeremy’s heart immediately leapt to his throat. Jake gave him a charming smile and sauntered across the hallway to him. Jeremy thought his legs might give out from under him.

“Hi,” Jake said, stopping right in front of him.

“Hey,” Jeremy said, feeling giddy as hell, but trying to be cool.

“Jeremy, right?” He asked.

“Uh yeah.” Jeremy nearly chocked out. Jake knew his name!

“You’re the new kid, right?” Jake asked, taking a step closer so Jeremy had to tilt his head up to continue to look at his gorgeous face.

“Yeah,” Jeremy said, brain not being able to come up with a more interesting response.

“Wow, that must kind of suck. I’m Jake by the way.” Jake flashed him another dashing smile.

Jeremy said, looking down at his shoes, “I…know.”

“Cool…Can I say something stupid? I heard that my friend Rich said something to you in the hallway to you the other day and I just wanted to say I’m sorry about that.”

Oh, my god, he was literally so nice, who just did that? Apologize for a friend? Just so attractive and nice? “That’s…not stupid at all.” Jeremy said with what he hoped was a coy smile.

Jake leaned against the wall and bit his lip. Jeremy wanted to scream.

“Cool. Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to go out sometime. Like to the mall or out to eat? I figured we could get to know each other. Alone. I could take you to my friend Rich and I’s favorite spot in the universe, Sbarro!” Jake laughed with a wink.

No one had ever asked Jeremy out before, certainly not someone like Jake Dillinger. He was about to start nodding rapidly but then his dad's rule came rushing back to him. Jeremy wanted to scream when he remembered.

“I, um, actually can’t.” Jeremy said, feeling like an idiot, “My older brother-”

“I know about your whole dating problem and have a guy working on it as we speak.” Jake raised his eyebrow and flashed a beautiful grin.

“Oh.” Jeremy was shocked. Jake must honestly, truly want to go out with him if he was willing to find someone to date Evan.

Jake reached out and ran a hand down Jeremy’s shoulder to his hand, holding it after. Jeremy's shuttered and goosebumps popped up all over his skin.

Jake looked down at their conjoined hands then back up at Jeremy through his lashes, “So how about it?” 

“Sure, okay.” Jeremy managed to get out.

“Alright,” Jake said and handed Jeremy a slip of paper with his phone number on it. He winked and continued his stroll down the hallway.

Jeremy shuttered out a breath, feeling like he might explode, and watched Jake go.

-

Evan was curled up in his bed, just finished with all his homework for the night, scrolling through his phone. This was simultaneously the best and worst part of the whole day. School was over and Evan had the rest of the day to do whatever he wanted…the only problem was there was nothing for him to do.

He usually just went in an endless cycle of refreshing Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for hours.

Jared was usually the person who posted the most on all on social media. Game stats and scores, complaining about teachers and dragging classmates, stuff like that. Zoe posted pictures of her and Alana or videos of her jazz band playing. Alana liked to have friendly debates on threads and write all about her extracurriculars and studying. Chloe and Brooke put up selfies, vague-posted about everyone at the school, and reposted makeup tutorials, he wasn’t quite sure why he followed them, or the other popular people at his school. Probably just to fill time and space on his accounts.

He finished rewatching all the Snapchat stories, feeling a little bored.

It was kind of a weird feeling. Evan really wanted to be a part of what was going on, at all the parties he saw and all the events people posted about and hanging out with all the people he was friends with online. But at the same time, he didn’t feel like it would work out that well. He’d be too anxious to have a good time and everyone would think he was weird and it just wouldn’t end well. 

He just liked to pretend that maybe it could.

For once.

Go well.

Evan got up out of bed and left his room to use the bathroom. He stared down at his phone as he went. He finally looked up once he reached one of the porcelain sinks.

He brushed his teeth and contemplated a shower. He’d have to wrap his arm up and tape it and that really didn’t sound that fun right now, so maybe just a shower tomorrow. Evan turned away from the sink and jumped in surprise. Jeremy was standing in the doorway.

“He-Hey Jeremy,” Evan said, trying to play off the fact that he had been scared.

“Hey,” Jeremy said with a nod.

Evan grabbed a washcloth from the counter and ran it under warm water. Jeremy moved up to the other sink, applying acne cream to his face.

They stood there in a silence. It probably wasn’t that awkward but Evan couldn’t feel a silence any other way. 

“How was-” Evan started but stopped to wipe his face with the damp washcloth. “How was school?” He eventually got out.

“Classes were fine. Jake Dillinger talked to me today.” Jeremy said, trying to sound calm and casual but coming across as anything but.

“Cool. That’s-That’s nice.” Evan said, then rubbed the cloth in circles on his mouth so he didn’t have to say anything else.

More silence.

Jeremy finished up his routine with brushing his teeth and flossing before he turned to leave. He stopped and eyed Evan up and down.

“Have you ever tried something that wasn’t khakis and polos, Evan?”

Evan’s face was already bright red from scrubbing it for so long, Jeremy probably couldn’t see his embarrassment.

“Not…not really. I like…blue polos.”

“People at school would probably think you’re cooler if you did,” Jeremy said like it was a fact.

This was…bizarre. Why did Jeremy care if people thought he was cool? Was he really so embarrassing to be tethered to as a stepbrother that Jeremy wanted him to wear different clothes?

“I-I-I don’t- I don’t care what those people-people think,” Evan said, voice breaking a little.

Jeremy scrunched his eyebrows together, “Well maybe you should.” Jeremy walked out of the bathroom. Evan stood there, taken back by how random this was. Maybe someone had said something to Jeremy at school. Maybe Jake had said something to him. Maybe he was getting bullied by other people because of Evan. He suddenly felt really guilty. He hadn’t meant for that to happen.

Evan threw his washcloth in the laundry hamper and hung his head as he made his way back to his bedroom. He laid back down on his bed and pulled up Twitter again. He didn’t scroll. Who could be bullying Jeremy? There weren’t a ton of actual bullies at school, just people who were gossiping jerks. Evan stared at his phone screen until it timed out and the screen went dark. He told himself to just try and focus on something else.

_School?_

No…that’s where the jerks were.

_Summer?_

Not the best memories from that time.

_Zoe Murphy?_

Probably best to stay away from that for a while…

_…Connor Murphy?_

Wait! No! Wondering mind was a bad idea. Evan rolled over and pulled the blankets over his head.

Today at school, when Connor had asked him to hang out. That had to have been some kind of joke. Maybe Connor was trying to mess with him and get everyone to see that he was just a bigger loser than everyone already thought. Evan’s stomach filled with dread. That was probably it.

There’s no way Connor would – that anyone would – want to hang out with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh shoot! Let the scheming begin!
> 
>  Fun Fact: Just remember that the way people perceive others from their point of view is different than how they really are (this fact is really just about Jake because I love him and he's not a bad guy and yeah please love that big idiot too.)
> 
> My tumblr is you-and-i-for-forever so come watch me reblog things about these losers.  
> This is only my second time writing fanfiction and first time writing a multi-chapter one so I hope you like it!  
> Don't forget to smash that kudos button and leave me a comment if you want to see more fics like this.


	5. Into Action Part B

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YOOOOOOOOOOOO!! Here's the new chapter boys! Wish me luck at school tomorrow...
> 
> Shout out to Addy+Smith, Snitzel, and Macy9534 for commenting on the last chapter also thanks for everyone for leaving kudos!

It was like him thinking about Connor the other night had somehow called the real Connor Murphy to him wherever Evan went. It felt like no matter where he was, Connor was there. Trying to get him to hang out with him. Why did he want to hang out with Evan? What was he going to do to him? Rip his fingers off? Rob him? Take him somewhere far away and murder him and throw him into a creek?

The library was the first time after the locker incident Connor had approached him. Evan had his face buried in a book when he had become hyper-aware of someone walking towards him. He looked up for a second to find Connor pulling out a chair and sitting down next to him. Evan snapped his head back to his book, his whole body seized up.

“What’s up?” Connor asked, looking and sounding bored.

Evan blushed and shrugged, trying his best to make himself invisible. He couldn’t bear to look over at Connor, it was too embarrassing and frightening. The school bell suddenly rang, freeing Evan from this social prison.

Another time was when he was walking out the front doors of the school, heading home. Someone fell into step with him and Evan only glanced over.

“You want a ride home?” Connor asked, nodding his head at Evan in a greeting.

“No-no, uh, no thanks.” Evan stuttered out and walked faster.

The most recent time was in Mrs. Perry’s American history class. Evan was well aware that Connor sat right behind him and he could feel his eyes boring into the back of his head. When Mrs. Perry dismissed the class, Evan felt a tap on his shoulders.

He turned to Connor, slowly.

“Wanna study for the exam on Monday?” Connor asked, tilting his head.

“I’m actually gonna– gonna be…out of town this weekend. My grandma’s sick and I have to go and-and-and visit her.” Evan stuttered out the lie then tore out of the classroom, so frazzled from the attention.

No one had ever paid Evan so much attention before, it felt so strange. The few people who would try to talk to him usually became annoyed with his stuttering and stammering very quickly. They usually wouldn’t talk to him again after. Connor had to be playing some prank on him. Trying to mess with him and see if he’ll cry or something.

Evan contemplated if he should just hang out with Connor once to get the whole prank over with.

-

Connor was in his usual spot in the courtyard, reading The Great Gatsby for English class. He wasn’t especially interested in it but he trying to distract himself from the past 2 weeks. Evan wasn’t the easiest person to try and befriend.

Connor ran a hand through his hair, miffed by the whole thing.

“When I shell out fifty, I expect results,” A voice growled from in front of him. Connor knew the honeymoon period hand to end at some point.

“Yeah, I'm on it,” Connor said, not even looking up from his book. It’s not like Connor wasn’t trying. Evan fled like a startled deer whenever Connor approached him. He had been trying to come up with different strategies for days.

“Following that freak around doesn’t count as a date. And if you don’t get any, I don’t get any.” Jake grunted and crossed his arms.

_What the fuck did he just say?_

Connor glared up him, top lip pulling back in disgust. “I just upped my price,” Connor spat at him.

Jake tensed up but Connor wasn’t scared of him.

“What?” Jake asked through gritted teeth.

“A hundred bucks a date. In advance.” Connor said, snapping his book shut and standing up.

“You haven’t even taken him anywhere! Forget it.” Jake bit back. “Forget his brother, then,” Connor said with what he hoped was a mean looking smirk.

Jake looked pissed but reached into his packet and fished out a wallet. He peeled out another 50 and shoved it into Connors' hand.

“This better work Murphy,” Jake said with a growl.

Connor rolled his eyes as Jake walked away, but…started feeling just the tiny bit nervous.

Was he really gonna be able to do this?

-

Michael and Jared were sitting in Michael’s care in the school parking lot, watching Connor walk to his car.

“Go,” Jared said, shoving his arm.

“No, you go,” Michael said, shoving him back.

Jared rolled his eyes, “I went last time and since that went SO well, I think you should go.”

Michael nodded and quickly got out of the car. He walked over to Connor, palming at the soda bottle in his hands. Connor was unzipping his backpack, looking for something. Michael glanced back and saw Jared had followed him, hanging back a little.

“We know what you’re trying to do, with Evan Hansen,” Michael said, trying to sound confident but shrinking a little when Connor merely glanced over his shoulder at him.

“We want to help you out,” Michael continued.

“Why’s that?” Connor grunted, not really seeming to care what the answer was.

“The situation is,” Jared began and Connor visibly stiffened at the sound of his voice. Michael was sure Connor was going to turn around and be able to kill Jared with just a look.

Jared continued like there wasn’t a possibility of them both getting murdered, “My man Michael here has the hots for Jeremy, Evan’s stepbrother.”

Connor finally turned all the way around and for just a split second Michael saw a glimpse of someone else. The same person who had freed a defenseless animal. His eyes looked tired like he didn’t have enough energy to put up a fight against Jared or run.

“What’s so great about that guy anyway?” Connor asked, running fingers through long, greasy hair.

Jared shrugged, “Don’t know. But I think I speak correctly when I say that Michael's love is pure. Purer than say – Jake Dillinger's.”

“Look. I'm in on this for the cash. Dillinger can fuck whoever he wants.” Connor huffed.

Michael said looking between Connor and Jared, “Okay, there will be no fucking!” Both Connor and Jared glanced over at him and snorted.

“Look, Connor, let me explain something to you here. We set this whole thing up so Michael can get the guy.” Jared wrapped an arm around Michael’s shoulders, “Michael. Jake's just a pawn.”

Connor stood there, looking back and forth between Michael and Jared. “So you two are really gonna help me?” Connor asked, very suspicious.

“We’ll do some research. We’ll find out what he likes. We’re your guys.” Jared said with a shit-eating grin.

“And he means that in a strictly non-prison-movie type of way,” Michael explained. Connor narrowed his eyes at him.

“Look, Rich Goranski just posted on his twitter that Jake’s having a party in like 3 weeks. It’s the perfect opportunity.” Jared explained.

Connor raised an eyebrow, “Opportunity for what?”

“For you to take out Evan,” Michael said.

Connor knitted his eyebrows together, “Doesn’t really seem like one for social events.”

“He’s not so he’ll just follow you around, stick by your side the whole time. You won’t be able to get rid of him.” Jared smirked.

“I‘ll think about it.” Connor said, pulling out his keys from his backpack, “I need him to talk to me first.”

“We’ll let you know what we find,” Michael said with a nod. Connor mirrored his nod and walked around his car and climbed in.

Jared grabbed Michael’s arm, “Come on, it’s time to snoop.”

-

Michael was confused. He knew he and Jared talked about digging up things about Evan, but he wasn’t exactly sure what they were going to do. They couldn’t just drive over to Jeremy’s house and go through Evan’s things, that was crazy. It started making less sense when Jared had instructed him to drive to Jared’s house.

Soon, Michael and Jared were sitting at Jared’s kitchen table with only Jared’s computer sitting in front of them. Jared was typing away at it like a madman.

“What are we even doing?” Michael asked.

“Looking for what Evan facts,” Jared said.

“What are you going to do, google him and hope a list comes up?”

“Nah, I can just hack into his computer and see what he’s into.”

“What?” Michael cried “You can’t do that, that’s illegal.”

Jared just snorted and kept typing on his computer, “Only if someone finds out.”

Michael watched Jared finish typing in a bar of coding into a tab when another one popped up. It was of a desktop homepage that wasn’t Jared’s. The background was a pathway in a forest. There were a couple icons. Evan’s desktop.

Jared started clicking on random things, hemming, and hawing. Some pictures of people that Michael didn’t recognize but must be Evan’s family. Pictures of animals, plants, random stuff that looked like photos saved from google images.

Jared went through word documents next. Lots of old assignments. He opened a folder entitled Letters from Me. There were about 30 of them.

“What are these? Sex letters to himself?” Jared laughed.

He leaned in while Michael leaned back. This didn’t feel right. Maybe they shouldn’t be going through Evan’s stuff.

“Woah. We definitely need to start making a list. It’s like he knew what kind of information we needed.”

Michael reluctantly pulled out a notebook and started scrawling down anything Jared told him. Jared poked fun at Evan the entire time and Michael felt worse.

“Hey, Jared we probably have enough stuff here. We can come back to this if Connor needs anything else.”

“Just a sec, I want to check one more thing,” Jared said, a devilish smile creeping across his face.

He opened up Evan’s web browser and opened the computers history.

“Oh my god, I knew it.” Well, that was a surprise. Last night Connor’s name was typed into google several times. Evan had searched for him in almost every popular social media site. “What does that mean?” Michael asked.

“He’s interested.” Jared said, nodding like he knew it was going to be there, “Aw! He wanted to be Facebook buddies.”

Somewhat relieved, Michael let his shoulders sag, “Well, at least we know that Evan’s not completely terrified of him.”

-

Connor turned the dial on his locker around for the billionth time. Stupid thing was stuck all the time. He took deep breaths in and out of his nose to stay calm. It was just a stupid metal door, it wasn’t going to get the best of him.

“Hey.” Someone said from beside him.

He glanced over and saw the asshole with the glasses and his friend.

“So what've you got for me?” Connor asked, finally able to open his locker.

“A little insight into a very complicated dude.” Asshole’s friend said.

“Michael has notes. First thing: Evan hates smokers.” Jared said, gesturing towards the rolled blunt Connor had half-heartedly trying to conceal.

“You’re telling me I can’t smoke my pot?” He asked, crossing his arms.

“Yeah. But just for now.” Michael – apparently – reassured him.

“So I already know that Evan’s likes girls and guys, but there’s a problem. He likes pretty guys.” Jared said.

Connor glared down at that asshole, trying to look frightening. He couldn’t care less what Jared thought of him, but he wouldn’t get teased by the leader of the Lollipop Guild.

“Are you telling me I’m not a pretty guy?” He bit.

“He's very pretty! He’s a gorgeous guy.” Michael interjected, fear in his eyes.

“Whatever you say.” Jared snorted.

Connor watched Michael pull a piece of paper out of the gut pocket on his sweatshirt and offer it to him. He cautiously opened it and found a list of Evan facts.

“Alright. Okay. He loves trees and nature, calming music, home cooked meals, and reading. Here’s a list of books and movies he likes too.” Michael explained, running his hand along the paper and pointing out each of the items on the list.

“So I'm supposed to make him dinner and buy him some books, right?” Connor asked, and thought about how stupid the plan was.

“Have you ever been to that little park off Kennedy St., Boulevard Park? That’s where Evan likes to go most days after school if he’s not hiding in his room from the rest of humanity.” Jared said.

Connor pulled a face, “I don’t like parks.” His locker finally popped open.

Parks meant people who would stare at him and little kids who would cry at the site of him and other teenagers who might chase him through the forest again and stupid shit like that.

“But he’ll be there.” Michael pressed.

Jared smirked, “You can be in sunlight right? You won’t burst into flames?”

Connor rolled his eyes and threw the blunt back into his locker and slammed it shut, ignoring the fact that he actually needed a few things out of it.

He ran a hand down his face and sighed, not looking forward to this at all.

-

Evan arrived at the park about 20 minutes after school got out. He walked to his favorite tree, a large oak tree that was about a 30 feet into the forest. It wasn’t really hidden or anything but it was secluded and quiet. He made himself comfortable and pulled out a copy of Collins Tree Guide and started reading. The sun was filtering through the trees and Evan liked the way the light moved around on his book.

This was one of the rare days when he felt almost at peace and that nothing was really wrong. Dr. Sherman had changed his medication a little so maybe that was helping.

He had read through a couple pages when his stomach growled and he turned to his bag to pull out a snack.

His eyes scanned the woods and relaxed his shoulders a little. Maybe today could be okay. Maybe it would all be fine. Evan almost choked on his goldfish when he saw someone sitting on the bench just outside the forest opening.

His pulse picked up when he saw it was not, in fact, some random person but Connor. Evan coughed and threw himself behind the tree, trying to become completely hidden by the thick trunk.

Had Connor followed him there? Was he spying on him?

Evan peeked around the tree. Connor was just staring at a book in his hand. Evan sighed.

Connor’s eyes quickly shot up and suddenly their eyes had locked.

Connor got up and started walking over to him. Evan hid back around the tree not sure what to do. He stood up and glanced around for an escape route. 

“Hey wait,” Connor called as Evan grabbed his backpack. Evan turned and Connor was only a few feet from him.

“Hey I’m…look I’m sorry I didn’t mean to make you leave,” Connor said, looking sort of apologetic.

Evan looked down at the ground and spoke, “I was just gonna- I was already- I was leaving.”

“Oh,” Connor said and Evan peaked up at him, he actually looked just the tiniest bit disappointed.

“I mean I was gonna-gonna leave in a few minutes…” Evan said, his voice dropping on the last couple words. “Oh?” Connor said.

“Y-yeah,” Evan replied, feeling weird and flustered.

They stood in silence for a few moments.

“What were you reading?” Connor asked, gesturing towards the book still clutched between his hands. It probably had nail marks into now.

“Oh, it’s a book about- about trees. Trees native to Europe. It’s really cool…if you’re into…trees.” Evan finished lamely. Why did he allow himself to talk?

“What kind of trees are native to Europe?” Connor asked.

“Um well um there’s ash trees which can live up to 400 years old and Plymouth Pear which is one of Europe’s rarest trees, and Crack Willow that grows by rivers.” Evan quickly rambled off.

“Cool,” Connor said with a small smile. Evan blushed and fiddled with the book.

“Yeah. If you like that you’ll be...obsessed with all- with all my forest expertise.” Evan said, not knowing what else to say but wanting to fill the space.

Connor’s smile grew a little more and Evan thought he must be thinking how lame it was to like plants so much.

“Exper-trees.” Was all Connor said with a small grin.

Evan let out a short laugh, surprised that the scary, intimidating, possibly criminal Connor Murphy had made a joke, and it wasn’t even at his expense.

Evan somehow found himself walking side by side Connor around the park. Connor was actually an all-around normal person. Evan was still nervous, that seemed more general to everything, not specifically towards Connor.

As they walked, Connor pointed at every tree they passed by and asked Evan for its name and a cool fact. Evan supplied him some information he knew about all of them.

Evan realized something after he had informed Connor about spruce trees, “You’re not, uh, surrounded by your- your usual cloud of smoke.”

Connor turned to look at him, with an arched eyebrow. “Oh my- oh my god that was...so rude I’m s-sorry.” Evan stuttered out.

“I quit. Apparently, they’re bad for your memory or something. Came to the park today to get some healthy, fresh air and that’s when I spotted you.” Connor explained with a shrug.

“Oh.” Was all Evan replied with, “yeah, well, I’m always here.”

They started talking about some other neutral topics; movies, books, travel. Connor liked fantasy movies, coming of age stories, and wanted to road trip around the US.

They were just getting to hobbies - Connor apparently didn’t have any – when Evan felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He pulled it out to a text from his mom, reminding him he had his therapist appointment soon and to start heading home now.

“I um I gotta go,” Evan said, feeling slightly saddened at the thought of leaving their conversation.

“Okay.” Connor said eyebrows scrunched up, “Hey uh, can I give you my email address?”

“Email address?” Evan asked.

“Yeah, my parents took my phone away so I can’t text but I can give you my email. I’d like to know more cool tree facts.” Connor paused and ran a hand through his hair, “I mean…unless I’m bothering you.”

“What? Oh no, um, not at all.” Evan said, suddenly feeling desperate to not lose whatever friendship was starting to form between the two of them.

“Well, I tried to talk to you at school and you didn’t really seem that interested,” Connor said, trailing off. Evan felt his face flush again and lied, “Oh that? No-no-no, I wasn’t trying to avoid- avoid you or, uh, anything, honestly.”

Evan carefully handed Connor his phone. Wait…was this the part where Connor just took his phone and ran? How was he supposed to watch him? What if he sold his phone to buy drugs? What if-?

Connor handed back his phone with his email address typed in.

“Email me whenever.” Evan looked into Connor’s eyes for a second before looking back down at Connor’s email address.

Evan gave him a shy smile, “Okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Connor and Evan becoming friends (and something more!) also Jared and Michael's friendship is what fuels this fanfic
> 
> Fun Fact: This has been my favorite chapter to write so far!
> 
> My tumblr is you-and-i-for-forever so come watch me reblog things about these losers.  
> This is only my second time writing fanfiction and first time writing a multi-chapter one so I hope you like it!  
> Don't forget to smash that kudos button and leave me a comment if you want to see more fics like this.


	6. Lying to your Dad is a Bad Idea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who the fuck is back from doing a bunch of school?!?!? It's me!! Yay! I'm back for good and my next quarter should be a lot easier than this one so I'm hoping to be putting out these chapters a lot more regularly. 
> 
> Thanks to obradeteatro, Lumiera, Addy+Smith, and Biltchibo for commenting on my post about having to take a break and also sammy, Lululablette, pictureperfectwatermelon, geekyoakley, candeIoro, and Addy+Smith (again) for commenting on chapter 5!
> 
> Thanks to everyone who's left kudos as well.

Jeremy felt light as a feather. Jake had talked to him. Jake had smiled at him and held his hand. Jake had invited him to his party personally. Jeremy felt like his chest was going to bust, it was almost too amazing to really believe it had happened.

Jeremy had called Michael basically screaming that night over the whole thing. (Michael hadn’t been able to hang out again with his and Jared’s project coming up.)

“And then – Michael – and then he smiled and he gave me his phone number and I still can’t believe it happened.”

“That’s really cool Jer,” Michael said, not really sounding this interested.

Jeremy huffed, “Dude! It’s gonna be, like, the biggest party of the year and I get to go.”

“Not to kill your mood, but everyone got invited.”

Jeremy rolled his eyes, “Did you get personally invited by Jake?”

“I still don’t get what you see in him,” Michael said

“You’ll see at the party,” Jeremy said, confident that Michael would get on board once he was a little more up close and personal with Jake.

-

_Dear Connor Murphy,_  
_I had a nice time at the park today with you._  
_Sincerely,_  
_Evan_

_Dear Evan Hansen,_  
_Me too. Do you want to do it again?_  
_Sincerely,_  
_Connor_

_Dear Connor Murphy,_  
_Sure. I don’t really do much, so I’m free most of the time._  
_Sincerely,_  
_Evan_

_Evan,_  
_Me either, aside from when I’m creeping on people in the park._  
_Connor_

-

Even after that day at the park, Evan was still slightly unsure about Connor. The way he randomly tumbled into Evan’s life after disappearing for a year was…strange, to say the least. But Connor seemed nice. And genuinely seemed like he wanted to be around Evan. He had called over to Evan when he entered the library so they could sit together and waited by his locker a few times. He would give Evan a crooked smile and small wave. 

It took about 2½ weeks for Evan to feel like he had really warmed up to Connor. They ate lunch together in the library every day and worked on homework together.

Today they were walking out the door at the end of school when Connor glanced over at him. “Do you want a ride home?”

“Yeah, okay” Evan replied with a nod.

They walked over to Connor’s beat up red Mini Cooper and got in. Evan watched Connor run a hand through his hair as he started the car.

Connor paused for a few moments before turning to Evan. “Do you want to go get some ice cream or something?”

“It’s kinda- kinda cold for that,” Evan said, glancing out through the windshield to look at the bare trees. He watched Connor’s face fall a little and immediately regretted what he said. “But, yeah, ice cream sounds, that sounds good.”

Connor took him to a small parlor called A La Mode and bought him a large scoop of vanilla ice cream.

He was so much different than Evan had even thought possible, ever really hoped for. He was funny and nice and charming when he wanted to be. Evan really had no idea why someone like Connor had taken interested in him, but he was thankful for the chance at a friend.

-

“Do you want to go to that party tonight?”

“Huh?” Evan asked, surprised.

Connor had plopped himself on to the chair next to Evan in History before class started.

“I heard that that guy Jake Dillinger was having a party tonight and I wanted to know if you wanted to go with me.”

Evan looked down at his homework, “I’m not really sure.”

“Okay, that’s cool. Just let me know if you change your mind.”

-

The night of the party came quicker than Jeremy had realized. He had picked out some closed that almost made him look cool and styled his wavy hair so it didn't fall in his face. He put chapstick on and the smallest amount of Heidi's concealer on a few zits.

Jeremy felt all ready for the party, the only problem was getting there. He didn't have anyone to drive him there, he hadn't been able to reach Michael for the past few days, and he still needed to get out of the house without his dad knowing he left. He quietly tiptoed down the stairs and to the front door, carrying his shoes so they wouldn't squeak. His dad currently napping on the couch in the living room. Jeremy wrapped around the doorknob when he heard his dad’s voice.

“You should have used the window.” His dad's eyes were still closed.

“Hey, Dad.” Jeremy awkwardly coughed.

“Hi. Where are we going?” His dad asked and sat up, leaning over to click on a lamp.

“Well, if you must know, it’s just a party,” Jeremy said. His dad’s eyebrows furrowed.

The stairs groaned and Jeremy turned to see Evan making his way down the stairs. 

“You know about any party?” His dad asked Evan. Evan looked up from his phone, wide-eyed, looking very confused for half a second.

“Kinda…” Evan replied with a stutter and his face got a little red.

“I have a ton of friends going, people expect me to be there!” Jeremy groaned.

“If Evan's not going, you're not going.” His dad said with a shrug and laid back down.

Jeremy huffed and crossed his arms, he knew it must have looked childish but god, this was so annoying.This was all Evan's fault! If he would just come to this party then Jeremy would have been caught like this and if Evan would just date someone then he could be free to openly date Jake and this was just so stupid!

“Why can’t you be normal?” Jeremy said in a seething voice to Evan. 

“What?” Evan asked

“Jake Dillinger’s party is normal,” Jeremy said

“What’s a Jake Dillinger?” His dad asked

 

“I-I didn’t know about any party, I mean, someone asked me to go, um uh uh, as a friend for fun but it doesn’t-it doesn’t look like it’s gonna happen. So I don’t know if I-I even wanna go, you know?” Evan rambled and pulled at his shirt.

Jeremy sighed and pulled Evan aside.

“Can you, for just one night, forget that you’re gonna break down and be my brother? Please? Please?! C’mon, Ev, please do this for me.” Evan’s face became a little pinker like he was pleased Jeremy had called him his brother and Ev. Jeremy’s plea had seemed to sway him. “…okay. I’ll make an appearance.” Evan said

Jeremy cheered and held out his hand for a fist bump, Evan looked even more pleased at that.

“It’s starting.” Jeremy’s dad groaned.

“It’s just a party, dad. We’re going now” Jeremy laughed.

“Alright, wait a minute. No drinking. No drugs. No kissing. No tattoos. No piercings. No ritual animal slaughter of any kind,” Jeremy’s dad paused and looked into the distance, “Oh god, I’m giving them ideas...”

Jeremy breathed a laugh and turned to watch Evan grab his coat and open the door. They were met with a body in the doorway. It was Connor Murphy. What was he doing here?

“Connor.” Evan greeted him.

“Thought I’d just double check to make sure you definitely didn’t want to go to the party,” Connor said and Jeremy watched the corner of his mouth turn up the slightest fraction, giving the hint of a smile. 

Jeremy looked between the two. Why was Connor Murphy here and talking to his brother and also why was he here?

Evan nodded and couldn’t make eye contact, “Yeah, I’ll think I’ll go.”

“Let’s go!” Jeremy called and it got the two other boys attention enough to get them in gear and start moving. Jeremy waved goodbye to his dad, who was staring at them, pain in his eyes.

-

“So, then Jeremy said that Jake stopped to talk to him again in the hallway. Said he was charming and the fact that he talked to him with a bunch of other people around, and this is a direct quote, – ‘really meant something.’” Michael said with air quotes.

Jared was plastering on deodorant to his armpits, only half listening. Michael had come over to his house to get ready for the party and, of course, wanted to talk about Jeremy. He was ready for them to just suck face already so they could get back to literally anything else. 

“You told me that part already,” Jared said, slapping the cap back on the deodorant and reaching for his father’s cologne.

Michael was messing with his hair, trying to get it to stand up a little. Whether he was consciously trying to get it to mimic Jake’s hair was unclear. “I've been thinking about it all the time...”

Jared leaned over and blew out a long raspberry into Michael’s ear. “Stop being so self-involved for one minute.” He pushed his glasses up his nose and turned to Michael. “How do I look?”

“You kinda look like a desperate virgin,” Michael said, eyebrows raised.

Jared looked down at his attire, bewildered. He was wearing his Rooster Teeth shirt and cargo shorts. “You think I should change?”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Jared said, pulling off his shirt and heading into his closet to find something else. “I’m just kinda nervous. The last party I went to was at Chuck-E-Cheeze. You wanna talk about some fun? That’s a good time.”

-

Evan climbed out of Connor’s beat up car, followed by his brother. Jeremy walked straight into the house, not waiting for Evan. He had happily ignored Evan and Connor the entire drive, seeming forgetting they were there. Connor came around the side of the car and Evan gave him a once over. He was wearing his usual get up but his hair was pulled up into a messy bun, exposing a shaved back.

“I like your undercut,” Evan said.

Connor gave a half-smile, looking pleased, “Thanks.”

Evan nervously smiled back.

“Come one, let’s go,” Connor said and slung his arm around Evan’s shoulders and started leading them up the long driveway, towards the front door. 

Evan stiffened a little at the contact but went along with it. Connor was a nice friend and he didn’t want to screw it up by being weird.

“You’re not in your usual a polo or khakis tonight,” Connor commented, pulling on Evan’s shirt.

Evan was wearing a white button up and some black jeans.

He laughed a little, “I don’t always dress like that…I just happened not to be wearing that tonight.”

“Looks good on you,” Connor said and Evan looked up at him. Connor was giving him another half-smile and it almost looked like his cheeks were pink. Evan flushed and muttered an embarrassed thank you.

As soon as they entered the house, Evan regretted agreeing to come. The place was packed with people, smoke filled the air, and music was blasting. Evan stiffened even more.

“You okay?” Connor raised his voice to be heard over the music.

“Yeah, I’m good.” Evan lied, reaching up and wiping his nose.

They made their way through the crowd, the arm around him the only thing making Evan feel even a little bit better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look at me, writing stuff again! This chapter was really hard because I didn't really feel like the movie gives a lot motivation wise that would really work for Jeremy character wise so sorry if he's out of character in this one!
> 
> Fun fact: I didn't really feel like Connor and Evan would sign off with 'Sincerely me' in emails so I changed it since it felt unnatural. Also, this has been my least favorite chapter to write so far!
> 
> My tumblr is you-and-i-for-forever so come watch me reblog things about these losers.  
> This is only my second time writing fanfiction and first time writing a multi-chapter one so I hope you like it!  
> Don't forget to smash that kudos button and leave me a comment if you want to see more fics like this.


	7. Rad Excuse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boy, 4-month breaks are fun. School was not as easy as originally thought...I'm definitely going to try and post all the chapters before I hit the one year mark for this fic.
> 
> Thank you to obradeteatro, candeIoro, Addy Smith, Whovian1994, and Reclusive_Bee for commenting on the last chapter and thanks to everyone who has left kudos as well.

Jared was ecstatic. It was his first real party – sad considering it was his last year of high school – but he was fucking ready.

He was in no way going to waste this opportunity and sauntered around, trying to find someone to talk to. He spotted two girls that were in his Spanish class.

“What did you guys get on Señor González’s midterm last week?” Jared asked, “I got a 100%, no big deal.”

The girls cocked their eyebrows at him and walked away, making eyes at each other that let Jared know they thought he was weird.

Whatever.

He saw another girl he knew. She was tall, blonde, and beautiful.

“Hey Heather, looking pretty sexy.”

Heather, along with her posy of friends, whipped around to glare at him. 

“Bite me,” She growled and strutted away, her clique following her closely.

“Should have kept the shorts,” Jared mumbled with a click of his tongue.

A hand came down on his shoulder and he almost jumped out of his skin. Jared prayed it wasn’t one of the cool kids who spotted him and decided to kick him out.

“Hey. Have you seen Jeremy around anywhere?”

Jared sighed deeply in relief and annoyance. He turned around to face Michael. “No dude, been a little busy here.”

Michael crossed his arms and furrowed his brows and Jared had to stop himself from sighing again. This whole genius plan had come from his beautiful mind and it was obvious Michael couldn’t do this without him.

“He’s probably getting food or a drink or something,” Jared said, trying to make his friend feel better.

Michael was gone in an instant, off to search for Jeremy in the kitchen no doubt.

Oh, shit, there was Sandy, and she was by herself, crying.

…Nice.

-

Connor guided Evan through the packed house. He felt bad for putting him through this, but Jake had to see them there together.

He pushed people aside, all while keeping a hand securely wrapped around Evan’s shoulder.

A guy Connor vaguely recognized from one of his classes was walking around with a tray of drinks.

“Whoa, scary dude, you want something to drink or smoke?” The guy pulled out a blunt from his pocket and held it up to Connor.

Connor’s hand jerked up a little, ready to take any kind of drug that was offered, but he stopped himself.

He grabbed a glass of whatever drink the guy had then pushed past him.

“Do you want anything? I’m not letting you have beer or alcohol or anything like that.” Connor said, turning his head to look at Evan.

Evan shook his head and Connor pulled him further into the house. He spotted Jake looking at him through an open doorway and Connor gestured his head back to Evan. Jake nodded and turned away, his eyes scanning the crowd, no doubt looking for Evan’s brother now.

Good, at least that idiot knew that Connor had done his part on getting Evan here.

-

Jeremy pushed past several people until he came up to Jake.

“There he is!” Jake said, smile beaming and reaching down to plant a kiss on Jeremy’s cheek and rested on an arm around Jeremy’s waist.

Jeremy felt his face get hot but he looped his arm around Jake’s waist, feeling confident.

“So, like I was just telling the guys here, hockey club was super intense this week, we found all these old hockey sticks in the back of the sports closet, so we asked the gym teacher what we should do with them and he said to throw them away but instead we used them for sword fights. I had huge splinters in my back and arms from where I got hit so it was pretty epic.”

The group that was listening to Jake’s story roared with laughter. Jeremy laughed awkwardly, more weirded out than impressed.

Once the laughter died down, Jake squeezed Jeremy’s shoulder.

“Anyway, this is Jeremy, my new boyfriend, we just started going out. Isn’t that right Jer?” Jake said.

Jeremy blinked up at him with wide eyes. Going out? Jake? Boyfriend? Jake dating him? Had Jake even officially asked him out?

Jeremy quickly nodded, wanting to seem chill in front of the other popular people.

His friends all smiled at Jeremy, the girls all cooed at how cute Jeremy was and the boys fist bumped Jake, telling him “nice job.”

“Babe, will you go get us something to drink, I’m dying over here,” Jake said with a wink.

Jeremy, slightly in a daze nodded and walked away.

That whole interaction had been…odd. Normally, nobody at school had ever paid attention to him, but now, being linked to Jake made other people not only see him but like him.

Regardless, cool people liked him and thought he was cool. Jeremy wanted to scream in excitement.

-

 

“I just don’t get what Jake sees in him.” Chloe huffed, blowing the hair back from her face as she watched Jeremy from across the room.

“Well, Jake said that he wanted to date Jeremy to be more popular,” Brooke said, shrugging.

“That doesn’t even make sense, Brooke!” Chloe said, turning to her, “How can dating a nerd make you more popular? Also, Jake is already the coolest guy in the school. Why would he need to make himself feel more popular?”

“I don’t know…we do only have 2 years left, maybe he’s trying to make the most of it? But, whatever it is, it’s definitely working,” Brooke said, gesturing over to Jake and the group surrounding him.

“Not so many people would be drooling and swooning over him if they thought he couldn’t keep a guy tied down,” Chloe said, angrily picking at her nails.

Brooke glanced over at Chloe and started to get nervous. She only picked at her nails before she was going planning on doing something especially nasty. Like the time in seventh grade when she cut off Tammy Curt’s hair with a pair of safety scissors because she kept sweeping it over her shoulders and hitting Chloe in the face. Or when Brad Forman slapped her ass in the hallway so she told the principle that he was smoking weed in his car during lunch breaks, which he was, and he was expelled.

Chloe suddenly looked up and grabbed Brooke’s hand.

“Come on, I have an idea,” She said and made her way over to Jake.

-

“Zoe, you have to try some of this jungle juice!” Alana laughed loudly “It’s soooooo good and there’s no alcohol in it.”

“Alana, babe,” Zoe said, putting her hands on her girlfriend’s shoulders and trying to get her to concentrate “You do know how vodka works, right?”

Alana starred into her eyes for a long moment before breaking out into another loud laugh.

“Whoops!” Alana said and chugged more of her drink.

Zoe sighed and wrapped her arm around her waist. They had been there for about half an hour and Alana was already wasted.

Someone bumped her shoulder as she was trying to help Alana to sit down.

“Sorry, I-” Zoe started before she looked over to see who it was.

“CONNOR?!” She practically yelled into her brother’s face.

Connor blinked down at her and raised an eyebrow.

“Jesus! What?” He asked

“What are you doing here?” She asked

Zoe watched her brother exchange glances with the boy standing next to him. The boy looked sort of familiar. His face was flush and he was carrying a glass of something in his hand.

“None of your business,” Connor snapped, scowling at her.

“It is my business if you’re drinking or smoking, I’m calling mom and dad right now if you are.” Zoe threatened, trying to look serious while Alana was starting to sink towards the floor and taking her along.

Connor scoffed and rolled his eyes, “I’m not, I’m just hanging out with my friend. Besides you’re one to talk.”

Connor eyed Alana before glancing back up at Zoe, “Have fun with your date.”

He quickly ushered his friend way, disappearing behind the waves of people before Zoe could get another word in.

That was suspicious. Connor did not have friends. He had dealers and people he harassed and that was about it.

What the hell had Connor done or said to that kid to stick to Connor’s side?

Not just that but, Zoe didn’t buy anything he bought for a second, as soon as she got home, she was reporting to her parents.

…Although…she was supposed to be at Alana’s tonight studying, not at a party so…fuck.

-

What Jeremy felt a tap on his shoulder, he turned around expecting to find Jake looking down at him, but instead, he found Chloe. He hadn’t really interacted with her much, she both didn’t seem too interested in him even though he was with Jake.

“I’m supposed to get you. Jake has a surprise,” Chloe said with a wide smirk on her face.

“What kind of surprise?” Jeremy asked, taken back that they were talking to him.

“The kind where you don’t ask questions and come with us upstairs,” Chloe said and grabbed Jeremy’s hand, dragging him up the stairs.

-

Once they were in a bedroom Chloe pushed Jeremy so he was sitting down on the bed.

“Jake’s parent's room, don’t worry they’re not using it,” Chloe said with a wink.

“Ooooookay,” Jeremy said, looking around the room. “Where’s Jake?”

Chloe let out a high pitched giggle and shook her head.

“Oh my god, you are too freaking adorable,” Chloe placed her hands on Jeremy’s shoulders then bent down so her lips were practically pressed against Jeremy’s ear.

“Jake’s not coming.”

“He’s not? Then why…” Jeremy started, when Chloe straddled his lap, making herself comfortable.

“I don’t know why he’s so crazy about you. You’re not that cute. No offense.”

“None taken. I should get back-”

Chloe cut Jeremy off with a loud scoff. “You know he’s not that great. That whole big dumb nice jock routine? It’s how he gets everyone to like him. Not that I care.”

Jeremy scrunched up his eyebrows, confused as all hell, until it dawned on him.

“You’re jealous of Jake!”

Chloe’s eyes grew wide, “Um. Obviously, I’m not.”

“That’s insane! Why would you be jealous of anyone? Are you worried Jake is more popular than you?” Jeremy asked and quickly caught a hand across the cheek.

The slap hadn’t hurt at all but Chloe had long red fingernails that scrapped against his skin. The anger in her eyes confirmed what Jeremy had asked.

Suddenly, Chloe was all over Jeremy. She pushed his back so he was laying down on the bed and attached her lips to his.

Jeremy had no clue what to do. He felt like he was short-circuiting or frozen in place.

It wasn’t until a sharp pounding rattled the door that Chloe finally detached herself from his neck.

“TALLASS!!!” Came the thunderous voice

Jeremy felt his heart skip a beat.

It only took a second for the door to fly open, to reveal Rich. His face was as red as the streak in his hair and it looked like a vein in his forehead was about to burst.

“I’m going to kill you,” Rich growled, eyes wild with anger.

Chloe giggled and quickly got off Jeremy and moved to stand next to Brooke who had appeared in the doorway behind Rich.

Rich took long, staggering footsteps over to Jeremy, alcohol not only affecting his emotions but also his mobility.

Jeremy felt his heart stop altogether.

Jeremy is dating Rich’s best friend, Brooke tells Rich she saw Jeremy disappear upstairs with Chloe, Rich thinks Jeremy is cheating on Jake, Rich walks in on Chloe kissing him, so now, yeah, Rich is going to beat him to death for cheating on his friend.

Just as Rich was reaching out to grab Jeremy’s shirt, Jeremy heard Brooke’s voice.

“Rich…” She said, her voice full of worry, “Jake won’t be happy if he hears you beat up Jeremy.”

Almost instantly Rich’s arm retracts away from Jeremy and his body language becomes less aggressive.

“It’s not going to help anything, it’ll only make this worse.”

That seemed to break Rich out of this weird trance he was in. He growled at Jeremy and swiftly punched the wall to his left before shoving both the girls out of his way to leave.

Chloe turned to Brooke, “What the hell Brooke, that was so not part of the plan!”

Jeremy was already up off the bed and out the door before he got sucked into something else with the two of them.

-

Michael was sat in the bathroom, not really sure what to do. He had looked for Jeremy all around the party but couldn’t find him.

Michael felt like an intruder like he wasn’t meant to be at the party. He barely knew any of these people and Jared was only interested in getting a date.

He had his headphones up over his ears to try and block out the loud voices and music. They didn’t even have any good taste in music.

Suddenly, as if he could hear his thoughts, Jeremy was suddenly in the bathroom.

“Sup?” Michael said, surprised

He was pretty sure he had locked the bathroom door, but apparently not.

“Michael? You were invited to this party?” Jeremy asked

Michael crawled out of the bathtub and stood in front of Jeremy.

“Uh, open invitation, dude,” Michael said, eyebrow quirking up.

He watched Jeremy’s face turn bright red.

“You’re speechless…Cool kids got your tongue?”

That was one of the lameness things Michael had ever said, but it was the best he could come up with. He hadn’t really realized he was actually going to get to talk to Jeremy at this party at all.

“It’s really good to see you man,” Jeremy said, giving him a soft smile.

“You too.” Michael said, “Looked for you for a while.”

Jeremy rubbed at the back of his neck, “Yeah sorry, I was with Jake then some weird things happened.”

“Cool,” Michael stated plainly. He didn’t even know what to say to Jeremy now that they were together.

“What are you doing in here?” Jeremy asked, stepping further into the bathroom and leaning against the sink counter.

Michael felt a prick of annoyance start to creep up his back.

“Nothing much. Don’t really have anyone to hang out with right now.”

“Where’s Jared?” Jeremy suddenly said with an edge of irritation.

“Trying to find someone to hook up with,” Michael said with a raised eyebrow.

Jeremy hummed, “Weird. Surprised you guys aren’t conjoined at the hip like you normally are.”

“Well, you know, don’t really have anyone else to hang out with since someone else is more interested in someone else at the moment.” Michael snapped a little, his annoyance growing rapidly.

“Well, you know, it’s almost like you and Jared are always just hanging out together and stuff like that,” Jeremy said.

There was no way for Michael to really explain to Jeremy why he and Jared were always with each other without telling him the plan.

“We have a project. Plus, you and Jake are always hanging out together,” Michael retaliated

Jeremy scoffed, “And I thought Chloe was jealous.”

Michael took in a large breath, but suddenly deflated, “I have no idea what that means.”

“Doesn’t matter!” Jeremy said throwing his hands up in the air, “I’m going back down to the party to hang out with my boyfriend.”

Michael felt his eyes balloon out of his head.

“Your boyfriend? YOUR BOYFRIEND? Really? Your boyfriend? Are you kidding me? Jake Dillinger? Your boyfriend?” Michael stood up, hands moving for extra emphasis.

“What?” Jeremy said

“No, I’m just honestly asking!” He said

He was pissed, this had all backfired so hard on him, Michael was such a complete idiot that.

“Why is that so hard for you to believe?”

“It’s not!” Michael said, shrugging as sarcastically as he could. “I’m just so happy for you!”

“Whatever!” Jeremy said

He took a step towards Michael.

“Move it.”

“Or you’ll what?”

“Get out of my way. Loser.” Jeremy practically hissed at him

Michael took a step to the right, feeling his throat close up.

Jeremy shoved the door open and slammed it closed.

Michael stood in the same spot for a long time.

His fingers finally reached out and locked the door.

He slunk back to the bathtub and sank down on the side of it.

Tears started to blur his vision

“Fuck,” he whispered as he rubbed at his eyes.

-

It had only been 30 minutes and Evan’s anxiety was about to kill him. There were so many people here and there were all drinking and smoking and Evan was going to die.

Connor was drinking a beer when Evan finally needed to get away from the craziness.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” Evan shouted.

“Do you need me to come with you?” Connor asked.

“No no I’ll be okay, just gotta go and go to the bathroom,” Evan fumbled and stood up abruptly.

Connor looked at him then nodded, “Okay, I’ll be right here.”

Evan made his way past groups of people, most stumbling around and falling over as Evan tried to maneuver around them. A few throwing up. Evan’s heart was racing and sweat was pouring off of him. He was trying every door he came across but they were all locked. Most of them were probably preoccupied with couples. 

He finally found a door on the second floor that wasn’t locked. He rattled the handle for a few seconds before a shaky and broken voice called out to him.

“I’m on my period!”

“Michael?” Evan asked, recognizing the voice after a second.

After a moment, the door was opened to reveal that it was Michael. His eyes were red and puffy but that might just be from weed…or alcohol? Evan wasn’t really sure.

“Evan? Oh shit, you don’t look so good, get in here.” Michael said and opened the door wider.

Evan stumbled in and watch Michael close and lock the door. Michael sat down, leaning against the tub and Evan followed suit.

“Are you okay?” Michael asked

Evan shook his head slightly then asked: “Are-are you?”

“No,” Michael sighed “Jeremy and I got into a fight.”

“What happened?” Evan was still having a panic attack, but maybe talking about Michael’s problem would distract him.

“He called me a loser.” Michael's voice broke and he started crying.

Evan watched, uncomfortable, for a second before he put his arm around Michael’s shoulder. He felt extremely disassociated from all of this. Sitting in a bathroom, trying to comfort his stepbrother’s best friend at a huge raging party, while having a panic attack.

“Why would he do that? You’re his best friend?” Evan asked.

“Not anymore. Now I’m just some loser who is taking up his time when he could be hanging out with Jake,” Michael said, rubbing his sweater sleeve over his face, “He doesn’t even like me anymore, he never wants to talk to me again.”

Evan rubbed Michael’s arm, unsure about what else to do.

“Jeremy is-is the loser if he thinks he should give up someone like you for someone like Jake. Trust-trust me, I know. Before this whole thing, Jeremy would talk about you all the time and – and – and all the cool things you like and would do together and yeah you’re way cooler, like way cooler than Jake.” Evan rambled, he hoped he was making this better. 

He had never really comforted someone before.

Michael cried on his shoulder for a while and Evan picked at his shirt and took deep breaths to try and calm himself down.

Slowly, Michael brought a hand up to his face and wiped his tears away with his sweater sleeve.

“Are you okay? You’re breathing really hard.” Michael asked.

“I’m having a panic attack,” Evan informed him, tears streaming down his own face. They had started just as Michael had broken down.

“Oh shit, you should have said something!” Michael exclaimed, seeming to forget that his world was ending just a second ago, “Is there anything I can do? Do you have medication you can take?”

Evan just shook his head, “I don’t have anything with me.”

Michael stood up and made his way to the sink, and filled a cup with water.

“Here.” He handed it to Evan.

Evan took it and drank tiny sips.

“What made you have a panic attack?” Michael asked

Evan just shrugged, staring straight ahead.

“It wasn’t cuz of Connor, was it? Did he do something to you?”

Evan shook his head, “Parties make me like this. People, drunk people, too many people, it’s too warm, tight spaces, the ceilings are too low, it’s too loud, everything about this.” Evan explained, his breathing getting heavier.

“Do you want to go outside? Would that make you feel better?” Michael asked

“No, too many people would see me. If people know I’m having a panic attack it makes it all so much worse.” Evan replied

“Okay, we’ll just stay in here then until it’s over,” Michael said

Evan smiled awkwardly and continued to breathe hard.

“Would you mind talking about something? Just anything? It helps distract me.”

“Oh sure…uh...” Michael trailed off.

“Really, just talk about anything,” Evan said.

“Oh okay…um…I just got a midi fighter 64 and it’s really cool.” Michael said

Evan was glad to have found Michael in the bathroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's almost like Evan and I share all the same triggers for panic attacks! HAHAHA
> 
> Fun fact: In the movie 10TIHAY there is a point where there is a house party...though there is no fire in that one.
> 
> My tumblr is you-and-i-for-forever so come watch me reblog things about these losers.  
> This is only my second time writing fanfiction and first time writing a multi-chapter one so I hope you like it!  
> Don't forget to smash that kudos button and leave me a comment if you want to see more fics like this.


	8. Mad Abuse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, it may take your boi a couple months between every update, but I'll finish this fic even if it kills me.
> 
> Thank you to vulcanistics, guitar_babe, insert+a+name+here, Ashton, and Tigerstar_Lafayette for commenting on the last chapter and thanks to everyone who has left kudos as well.

Connor could only take sitting next to loud, annoying girls rambling on for so long. He had finished a two and a half beers and couldn’t get his mind off where the hell Evan had gotten to.

He didn’t seem like the type to just ditch someone but he had gone about 20 minutes so what was Connor supposed to think?

Connor stood up, shoving the girl next to him who had pressed her back up against his side over the past few minutes and started to look for Evan.

He wasn’t by the food or drinks table where several dozen beer cans and empty bottles were already pilling up. Jesus, the party had started, what, less than an hour ago?

He walked by the table where people were rolling up joints. Connor was tempted, but he needed to stay focused.

Evan wasn’t hanging out in any groups of people, passed out somewhere, or sitting someplace else to avoid Connor.

Connor hummed and figured he’d try the backyard if Evan had gotten freaked out and gone outside, maybe he could find him.

Connor stepped over a guy who had passed out on the back deck and scanned the area. A group was running around in circles while carrying others on their backs and giggling like little kids. Someone was pissing on the thriving flower beds. There were plenty of couples making out while two guys were playing chicken with each other, one of them seems way more into it then the other.

Evan wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

Maybe the front yard?

Connor slowly started making his way around the side of the house, only to find his little sister back there.

Alana had her pressed up against the fence and they were kissing.

Connor felt uncomfortable seeing physical affection up close, especially since it was his little sister.

“Nice,” he snorted, since he had no other idea how to respond but didn’t want to scare them by walking right past them.

The two girls pulled apart and Zoe’s entire face went red. Alana’s eyes grew large at the sight of him. 

The three of them stood awkwardly frozen for a moment before Connor continued past them.

Gross. Connor could have gone his whole life without seeing Zoe kiss someone.

After he opened and closed the gate, putting a wall between himself and the girls, he took a moment to rub his eyes. Just until the gray swirls took over his vision, trying to erase the previous image.

Connor took down and put his hair back up before continuing around the house but started to hear unintelligible screaming and shouting from inside. He got to the front yard and saw everyone from inside the house start to pour out the front door and windows.

“FIRE!” People shouted “FIRE!!!”

Connor looked up at an open third-story window and saw black smoke starting to billow out of a window

What dumbass started a fire?

Connor reached for his phone to call 911 but realized he didn’t have one. He looked around and saw about half the people on their phones, hopefully calling for help. The other half were recording the house.

Connor rolled his eyes and walked farther away from the house to the sidewalk, as more people came running out of the house.

Does this guy not own a fire extinguisher?

Connor watched the last of the screaming people run outside.

He suddenly felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He looked around, trying to find Evan in the crowd.

“OH MY GOD JAKE!” A girl screeched and pointed towards the top of the house.

Jake was hanging from one of the window sills on the third floor, fire starting to engulf the window.

“LET GO JAKE LET GO!” Someone else cried.

Jake kicked his legs for a second before looking up at the flames. He gasped loudly and let go.

Down, down, down he fell and crashed legs first into some bushes below. He cried out in pain and a dozen people rushed to him, pulling him away from the house.  
Connor looked around again and still couldn’t find Evan.

He looked back at the burning house, the entire third floor and some of the second floor engulfed in flames by now. He started to run around the crowd, starting to panic.

“Evan?!” He called, “Evan?! Where are you?! EVAN?!”

“Connor!” A voice came from before him.

He turned, relieved, only to find it was Evan’s stepbrother.

“Have you seen Evan?” Connor asked, grabbing onto his arms.

“Last time I saw him, he was with you. Have you seen Michael? He was in the bathroom before.” Evan’s stepbrother asked

“Bathroom?” Connor asked

“Yeah, one on the second floor.” Jeremy said, eyes widening, “You don’t think he could still –?”

Connor’s blood ran cold. Evan was still in there, in a bathroom. He had to be. Connor brought Evan here. Evan might still be in the house. Connor didn’t know how he knew, but he just did. He had to help him. 

Connor didn’t wait to hear the end of the sentence. He went barreling towards the house, shoving people out of his way. The front door was still open so he rushed through and paused in the entryway.

“EVAN?!” He called out.

He couldn’t hear a reply, if there was one, over the crackling fire. His eyes stung and it was hard to breath already.

Evan’s stepbrother said second floor so Connor rushed up the stairs. Flames licked at his feet and legs. The heat and smoke were unbearable, he already felt like he was starting to suffocate.

When he reached the second-floor landing, Connor saw a figure coming towards him. For half a second he thought it was Evan, but as it came closer, it was some kid Connor vaguely recognized who was on fire and flailing wildly. Connor watched the guy run past him and down the stairs, screaming painfully the whole time.

If Evan wasn’t his concern, he definitely would have helped him, Connor thought before looking down one end of the hallway and then the other.

All the doors were open except for three. He pulled the hood of his sweatshirt around and covered his mouth and nose with it. 

Connor ran to the closest door. He grabbed at the handle but pulled away when the boiling doorknob seared his hand. He quickly bundled his hand up in the sleeve of his jacket before reaching for the handle again. He was able to open the door and was met with flames incinerating the room. No Evan.

Connor sprinted to the next door, dodging chunks of burning ceiling falling down. Fire scalded his skin through his clothes and smoke burned his eyes, but Connor kept going.  
Coming to the second door, he slammed against it, not bothering with the doorknob. The door gave way in the middle, basically crumbling to ash. Connor looked in but it was only a bedroom and Evan wasn’t there.

Connor turned and ran down the hall, to the very last door. Connor rammed against it as hard as he could, the fear of not finding Evan sinking in.

The door didn’t budge. Connor was running out of time. 

He backed up and kicked the door as hard as he could, over and over again. Connor let out a frustrated yell and gave the door one final kick. The door broke open and he was met with Evan, and the kid who had offered to help Connor win over Evan shoved up against a far corner of the room.

“EVAN!” Connor called out in a mix of relief and fear. 

Evan was basically in the only part of the room that wasn’t on fire. Connor jumped over a burning rug and grabbed Evan’s arms.

“Are you okay?” Connor shouted, throat burning as he did.

Evan looked up at him but didn’t respond

“We still gotta get out of here!” The other kid said frantically

Connor looked back and saw burning holes in the floor starting to form, they’d fall through if they didn’t get out of there soon.

Without really even thinking about it, Connor instantly hoisted Evan over his shoulder before seizing the other kid by the wrist. Connor leaped back over the fire and out into the hallway. He was coughing and choking and he could barely see but he had Evan, that’s all that mattered.

“Which way?” The other guy asked.

Connor looked around for a second, trying to remember which way he had come from, everything looked exactly the same now. He glanced to the side and saw the burning wood of the railing.

“This way, come on!” Connor yelled and ran towards the stairs. 

Everything was completely on fire now, including the stairs, there was no way to get down them. Connor and the kid exchanged a look, not knowing what to do.

Before they could think of something, the burning banister crumbled and fell to the floor below with a loud bang.

Connor put Evan down and braced himself for a moment. Before he could really think what he was doing, he launched off the second-floor landing. He landed hard onto the balls of his feet and hands but had somehow successfully managed to dodge most of the fire.

Connor scrambled to stand before looking back up at Evan.

“Jump!” Connor told Evan, holding out his arms towards him. Evan looked frozen in fear.

“Come on Evan! JUMP!” Connor yelled and suddenly Evan was falling towards him. Instead of falling into his arms, Evan crashed down on top of him. All the air rushed out of Connor’s lungs when his back hit the ground.

All the wind was knocked out of his lungs and he desperately struggled for air. It was too smoky to even get a real breath in, but with his adrenaline screaming at him to survive, Connor forced himself not to focus on getting up. He heaved Evan up with him and looked around. There was fire closing in on them from all directions and they needed to get out of the house now.

Connor watched the other kid sit down on the landing then slide off. He landed on his feet and gave Connor a nod.

“Come on!” The other kid said

Connor swept Evan up into a bridal carry and sprinted for the door.

The three of them sped out the front door, across the street to the neighbor’s lawn, where the rest of the party had gathered.

Connor fell to his knees when he was finally on the grass then set Evan down and finally collapsed completely. He closed his eyes and gasped in the cold, clean air for a few moments.

How long had he been in the house for? It felt like hours, but really it couldn’t have been more than five minutes, right?

Connor rolled onto his back to sit up and stared at the house as it burned. He glanced down at his body and saw the flames had melted the plastic on his shoes and singed his clothes. Connor was sure if his hair had been down it would have caught on fire at some point.

He coughed a few times, lungs still burning and looked over at Evan. Evan’s eyes were large and glassy, transfixed on the night sky.

Connor closed his eyes and fell back onto the grass. He zoned out, his adrenaline and heartbeat still screaming at him that he was going to die.

-

Once the paramedics (as well as the firefighters) had arrived Connor, Evan, and the bathroom kid were all brought over to the ambulances and looked over by the paramedics.

A paramedic checked him over, shining a light over his face and skin to search for injuries and asking him questions about how he was feeling. She kept checking to make sure he was still breathing okay, which Connor thought was weird. The EMT found a few first degree burns on his legs and arms, a second degree burn on his right hand where he had grabbed the doorknob, and a large cut on his elbow where he had landed. She quickly dressed his hand and elbow then wrapped him in a blanket.

“Done?” Connor asked after he signed some paperwork.

“Yes. Make sure you stay warm and go to the doctors if those burns don’t start to heal soon.” The EMT instructed him.

He nodded and got up from the back of the truck to go before she stopped him.

“I heard the crowd talking. Don’t go running into anymore burning buildings trying to be a hero.” She scolded and Connor gave a half-hearted nod.

He made his way over to where he had watched Evan and the kid from the bathroom were sitting on the back ledge of another ambulance. They both had blankets similar to Connors but didn’t look like they were too beaten up.

“Hey” Connor greeted in a sedated tone.

Evan looked up at him with eyes that let Connor know he was a million worlds away. The other kid jumped right up and grabbed onto his arms.

_Michael _, Connor suddenly remembered out of nowhere.__

____

“Dude you saved us! Like really, actually saved us! We didn’t even know anything was happening until smoke started coming in from under the bathroom door and then it was too late. We tried to get out through the window but it was way too small and I thought we were goners for sure and then you just busted open that door. You saved us, man.” Michael said with a wide grin.

____

He gave Connor’s arms a tight squeeze and a serious look came over his face.

____

“Really dude, thank you. I don’t…I don’t think we would have made it out of there if it hadn’t been for you. Thanks for saving my life.”

____

Connor didn’t know what to say. He didn’t mean to do anything, he had just been looking for Evan and since Evan was in the burning house, that’s where he had gone.

____

“Oh yeah, it’s all good,” Connor said with an awkward thin-lipped smile.

____

“Connor?” Evan softly asked and Connor all but pushed Michael off of him.

____

Connor put his hands on Evan’s shoulders and whispered, “I’m here. Are you hurt?”

____

Evan shook his head, eyes still glazed over. Connor glanced back to Michael for a fuller explanation.

____

“The paramedics said he really only has a couple super minor burns, but the main problem is that his cast started to melt and he’s in shock,” Michael explained.

____

Connor nodded and took the blanket from his own shoulders and wrapped it around Evan. He rubbed his good hand up and down Evan’s back, an attempt at comfort, but Connor didn’t know if he was doing it right.

____

“You okay?” Connor asked Michael.

____

He nodded, “Yeah, I’m fine, pretty resilient. My throat hurts from the smoke but that’s pretty much it. You?”

____

Connor waved his injured hand at him and shrugged, “Fine.”

____

Evan shuffled closer to Connor, lightly resting his head on Connor’s chest.

____

“Come on, I’m taking you home,” Connor said to Evan, putting an arm around him to guide him. “You need a ride too?” He asked Michael

____

“Yeah, yeah that’d be great,” Michael replied and trailed behind them

____

They made it across the lawn, weaving in and out of large crowds of people when Connor heard someone calling Evan and Michael’s names interchangeably.

____

Connor and Evan both turned to find Evan’s stepbrother running up to them

____

 

____

“Evan are you okay?!” He half yelled, stopping right in front of them.

____

Evan nodded and mumbled “Go home, Jeremy. It’s not safe.”

____

“Okay, yeah, okay,” Jeremy said and looked shaken.

____

Connor turned around and kept leading Evan away. He heard Jeremy start to talk to Michael but was immediately shut down. Connor kept walking, he needed to get Evan home so he knew he was safe. He carefully situated Evan into the passenger seat of his truck and climbed in himself. Michael scrambled in after a short, but what looked like a heated, conversation with Jeremy.

____

“Where to?” He asked Michael

____

-

____

Jeremy sat on the sidewalk with his face in his hands.

____

_“What, now you care? Why don’t you go check on your boyfriend since he’s not an absolute fucking loser like me!'" _Michael had screamed at him.__

___Jeremy wanted to rip his air out. Why was Michael acting this way? Why couldn’t he just be happy for him?_ _ _

_____ _

_______ _ _ _

_____ _

“Hey,” a familiar voice came from beside him

_____ _

_______ _ _ _

_____ _

Jeremy whipped his head up, expecting to see Michael standing there, but it was Jared.

_____ _

_______ _ _ _

_____ _

“Have fun tonight?” He asked, sitting down on the curb next to him. 

_____ _

_______ _ _ _

_____ _

“Tons,” Jeremy said with a roll of his eyes

_____ _

_______ _ _ _

_____ _

The two sat there in silence for a moment, watching the firefighters continue to try and put out the fire.

_____ _

_______ _ _ _

_____ _

“Jeremy,” one of Jake’s friends called as he approached, “A bunch of us are going over to Damian’s house. You coming?”

_____ _

_______ _ _ _

_____ _

Jeremy stared at him for a long moment.

_____ _

_______ _ _ _

_____ _

“No, no thanks, man,” Jeremy replied with an awkward wave.

_____ _

_______ _ _ _

_____ _

The guy sprinted off and Jeremy turned back to the house.

_____ _

_______ _ _ _

_____ _

“Wow,” Jared said in a bizarre, thick voice “You’d think watching your friend’s house burn down and being taken to the hospital would make you chill, but I guess the ‘party never stops bro.’”

_____ _

_______ _ _ _

_____ _

Jeremy turned to Jared and blew air of his nose in a small laugh, “Yeah, you’d think.”

_____ _

_______ _ _ _

_____ _

Jared gave him an almost somber looking smile then stood up. He offered his hand to Jeremy and pulled him up.

_____ _

_______ _ _ _

_____ _

“I’ll take you home,” Jared said and gestured Jeremy to follow him.

_____ _

_______ _ _ _

_____ _

Jeremy nodded and started to follow before something in the corner of his eye caught his attention.

_____ _

_______ _ _ _

_____ _

Rich.

_____ _

_______ _ _ _

_____ _

Rich with dozens and dozens of white bandages covering his entire body.

_____ _

_______ _ _ _

_____ _

Rich, pointing directly at him, with death in his eyes.

_____ _

_______ _ _ _

_____ _

Jeremy felt his blood run cold and sped off to catch up with Jared.

_____ _

_______ _ _ _

_____ _

-

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“Can I ask you something?” Jeremy asked hesitantly after they arrived at his house.

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“Sure,” Jared said

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Jeremy was certain he didn’t want to know the answer to his question, but he couldn’t stop himself from asking.

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“What are you and Michael really up to?”

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“What?” Jared said, a thinly veiled look of guilt and nervousness overtaking his face.

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“I’m not stupid okay? I know you guys can’t really be working on that many group projects this semester.” Jeremy said, crossing his arms.

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“I have no clue what you’re talking about,” Jared said, his lips stretching into an uncomfortable looking smile.

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“Don’t play dumb with me, Jared,” Jeremy said, glaring at him.

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Jared just exaggerated a shrug as an answer.

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Jeremy scowled, “Fine, I get it. You guys can both fuck off, I’m don’t even care what you do anymore.”

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Jeremy opened the car door and started to get out when Jared’s hand grabbed his bicep.

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“Look, man,” Jared started, “Michael…still cares about you. Like, really cares about you. Like…you couldn’t believe what he’s been doing lately because he really, really cares about you.”

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Jeremy scowled deeper and tore his arm away.

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“Then he should show it,” he barked and slammed the car door shut.

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-

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Connor, Evan, and Michael pulled up at Michael’s house about 10 minutes later.

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Michael jumped out of the truck and hesitated before closing the door, looking between Connor and Evan.

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“Can I talk to you really quickly?” Michael asked Connor

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Connor paused. Was he willing to leave Evan alone? Was he physically able to leave Evan by himself?

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“I’m gonna call my mom, let her know what happened,” Evan mumbled and Connor felt better about leaving him for a few moments.

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Connor got out of the car and walked Michael to his front door.

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“It's off, okay? The whole thing’s off.” Michael said

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“What’re you talking about?” Connor asked

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“Jeremy never wanted me. He really just wanted Jake the whole time. He hasn’t talked to me in weeks and the only reason he even talked to me just now was because I almost died in a fire.”

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“Michael,” Connor felt his brows pinch together “do you like Jeremy?”

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“I mean…yeah,” Michael admitted.

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“Yeah. And is he worth all this trouble? All the stupid petty bullshit and real shit?”

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Michael paused and looked in deep thought, his hands messing with the sleeve of his hoodie. His eyes pricked with tears, “Yeah.”

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Connor sighed “Then he’s worth the trouble and the heartache and the fighting. First of all, Jake is not half the man you are. Secondly, don’t let anyone ever make you feel like you don’t deserve what you want…Just give Jeremy time to see you’re the right guy.”

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Michael nodded furiously and lunged forward to hug Connor tightly. Connor uncomfortably patted Michael on the back.

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“Thanks for saving my life.” Michael croaked.

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“No problem,” Connor said and waited for Michael to release him.

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He let go, smiled at Connor, then went inside.

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Connor turned and walked back to his truck. Evan was just finishing up the conversation on the phone.

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“Let’s get you home.” Connor murmured as he started his truck back up but stopped when he felt a hand on his arm.

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He looked over at Evan, who had tears streaming down his face.

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“Will you take me to the park?” Evan asked

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Connor nodded and shifted into gear.

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-

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They arrived in the park about 15 minutes later.

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Connor helped Evan out of the truck and they slowly made their way over to the tree Connor had found Evan under all those weeks ago. They leaned up against the tree and looked out over the open field. They sat in silence for a long time.

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Connor didn’t know what to say or do so he sat there quietly.

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“I could have died in that fire,” Evan said in a broken voice.

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Connor looked over at Evan and saw tears still pouring down his face.

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“I could have – I could have just - just burned up and…” Evan shook his head slightly, “no one would have noticed.”

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Connor’s stomach dropped, “What?”

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Evan looked over at him and it seemed like he was staring right through Connor.

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“No one would have noticed,” Evan whispered

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“That’s not true,” Connor said

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Evan didn’t reply, just shut his eyes and leaned his head back against the tree. He looked so defeated.

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“I would have noticed Evan.” Connor admitted, scooting a little closer “I would have noticed if you had died in that fire.”

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“N-n-no-no you wouldn’t have, no one would’ve.” Evan sobbed

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Connor ran a hand through his hair uncomfortably. He wanted to make Evan understand but he was never good at this kind of stuff.

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“I went looking for you. You didn’t come back so I went looking and I went out outside but I couldn’t find you and that’s when the fire started. I was searching through the crowd but I still couldn’t find you and that’s when I found your stepbrother and I thought you might still be inside. And I knew…I knew I had to…I couldn’t just…” Connor wasn’t sure how to end it.

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Evan was staring at him with large, glassy eyes.

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“You came back…you came back for me,” Evan said as if he had just realized it.

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“Yeah.” Connor nodded “I wouldn’t let something bad happen to you.”

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Evan blinked rapidly then rubbed his eyes.

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“Connor?” Evan asked, sounding dazed. 

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It seemed like he was coming out of shock. Connor reached a handover and placed it on Evan’s shoulder.

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“Yeah?”

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“You ran…back into the fire? To look for me?” Evan asked

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Connor nodded but couldn’t read Evan’s expression. Evan leaned forward and fell against him, wrapping his good arm around him. Evan was shaking and gasping a little through his tears. Connor wrapped his arms around him and pulled Evan closer so they were cozied up together.

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“You came back in- in to save me,” Evan said between sobs

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Connor just held Evan tighter and tucked his head into Evan’s shoulder. They stayed that way for a long time. Eventually, Evan’s tears stopped and his breathing had evened out. Connor thought he might be asleep so he pulled away but he found Evan looking back at him with red, puffy eyes. He gave Connor a small smile and moved his hand to ball it in Connor’s jacket on his shoulder.

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“Thank you for saving me,” Evan whispered.

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“You’re worth saving,” Connor said

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Connor leaned forward and pulled Evan close again, holding him tightly. He stroked his back slowly and gently.

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If this had happened a year ago, Connor would never have done this, touch another person in an affectionate sort of way. He would have thrown Evan off of him and stormed out of there. But all Connor wanted to do was invite him closer.

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A gust of wind blew past them and Connor felt Evan shiver, even with the two blankets wrapped around him. Connor pushed Evan to sit up then quickly pulled his own gray hoodie off.

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“Here,” Connor said and offered it to Evan.

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“You’ll get cold,” Evan said.

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Connor shrugged and waited for Evan to let go of the blankets. Evan put it on and Connor zipped it up for him, Evan’s hands were shaking too much. 

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“What-what happened to your arms?” Evan asked.

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Connor looked down to his completely exposed arms. He knew that taking off his jacket meant revealing scars, he just didn’t think Evan would be able to see them in the low lighting from the few street lamps in the park.

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“They were…from before.” Connor said, his chest and throat feeling tight.

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“Before?” Evan asked.

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Connor nodded, “Last year. Before last year. They’re old…I don’t…don’t do that anymore.”

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Connor and Evan sat there, staring at his arms. Connor’s eyes slowly slid up to look at Evan. His face was still wet with tears and he looked…haunted, in a way. Evan looked up and Connor felt like they had this strange sort of understanding just then, staring into each other’s eyes. Connor pulled Evan back to him then wrapped the blankets around them both. Evan shuffled around a bit, getting comfortable and it ended was Connor was basically cradling Evan’s top half. They don’t stop staring at each other the entire time like they were just sort of seeing each other clearly for the first time.

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“Hey…your eye has a little bit- little bit of brown in it,” Evan said with a shy smile.

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Connor gave a small smile back and held Evan tighter.

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After a while, Evan’s face became more relaxed and his eyes fluttered closed. Evan’s cast was pressed against his stomach and ribs but Connor didn’t move, didn’t want to jostle him.

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Connor watched Evan’s face as he slept. His eyebrows weren’t pushed together like they usually were and his mouth wasn’t set in an awkward smile or tight frown. He looked calm.

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Evan was so nice and soft and nothing like Connor’s ever had before. He’d never known nice or soft from anybody, including himself, for a long time. He never wanted to leave Evan’s side again, wanted to stay with him, protect him, and keep him safe from everyone at school.

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Connor suddenly felt sick to his stomach.

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People from school...Jake. Jake and his stupid deal. If Evan ever found out…

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Connor shook his head, he’d just back out of the deal. Tell Jake he was done and he didn’t want any part of this anymore.

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…But the money. That’s why Connor had started all this. He needed the money. After everything that had happened last year and the year before, his parents had taken any cash Connor had, not wanting Connor to be able to get his hands on any more weed or razors or maybe a gun to blow his brains out or a bus ticket to run away.

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They were right about all of that though. That’s why Connor had agreed to Jake’s stupid plan, he needed the money, he needed to get out somehow. The second Jake handed him enough cash, he was out of here, one way or anything.

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Connor was pulled from his thoughts when he felt Evan wiggle against him and made a soft noise in his sleep. He felt a rush of deep affection.

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Well, maybe he wasn’t completely out of here.

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now that Will Roland is playing Jeremy in the new BMC, you can picture him as both Jared and Jeremy! Fun!
> 
> Fun Fact: When I was watching the movie, Kat (the main girl) tells Patrick (the main guy) that his "eyes have a little green in them" and thinking about Mike Faist's monochromia eye was one of the things that helped me to feel like these 3 separate stories could be mashed together.
> 
> My tumblr is you-and-i-for-forever so come watch me reblog things about these losers.  
> This is only my second time writing fanfiction and first time writing a multi-chapter one so I hope you like it!  
> Don't forget to smash that kudos button and leave me a comment if you want to see more fics like this.


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